FARMINGTON – More than a dozen theaters across the country, including the Animas 10 Theatres in Farmington, will host special screenings Friday night of the new motion picture “Rez Ball” one week ahead of its scheduled international Netflix release.
The film follows a Native American basketball team working together to win a state championship after losing their star player. It will be set in the fictional community of Chuska.
“Rez Ball,” directed by Gallup native Sydney Freeland and featuring a cast which consists of many Native Americans actors, was shot in locations including Shiprock, Belen, Los Lunas, Estancia, Santa Fe, Rio Rancho and permitted filming spots on the Navajo Nation Reservation.
The film tells the story of the fictional Chuska Warriors, a Native American high school basketball team competing for the state championship title but lose their star player.
On Friday, the film will premiere in locations like New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., and in Farmington as well as Flagstaff, Window Rock, Albuquerque and Denver.
Freeland cowrote the screenplay with Sterlin Harjo, based on the nonfiction sports novel “Canyon Dreams,” by New York Times journalist Michael Powell. NBA star LeBron James serves as a producer. The film is set to feature an ensemble cast, including Jessica Matten, Julia Jones, Amber Midthunder and Kiowa Gordon.
The film premiered this month at the Toronto International Film Festival to mostly positive reviews.
“Maintaining a feel-good tone without becoming saccharine, “Rez Ball” is a charmer with enough of an edge to keep viewers on their toes,” wrote Jourdain Searles of IndieWire.com. “It’s the kind of film that makes one optimistic about the future, even if only for the length of a game.”
The cast includes a variety of familiar faces to television and film viewers, including Jessica Matten, who appeared in the television show “Dark Winds” as well as Julia Jones (“The Mandalorian”). In addition, there are several actors who will be making their film debut with “Rez Ball.”
“Our 10 players, for the most part, had never set foot on a film set before this,” Freeland said in an interview with Native Viewpoint. “These kids come from the places we’re trying to portray. A lot of it was just trying to give them permission to be themselves. And that manifested in the form of drama, but also comedy and humor.”
There are a number of local entities to the film that go beyond filming location and hometowns of the cast and crew.
Black Streak Apparel, owned and operated by Roddell Denetso of Shiprock, was tabbed to create the jerseys worn by actors in gametime scenes of the film.
The Chieftain Pit, located at Shiprock High School, was used as a shooting location for game scenes in the film.
Times for the “Rez Ball” screening at the Animas 10 Theatre have not yet been set. Those schedules will be updated early next week and will be available online at allentheatresinc.com and on the Allen Theatres app.
