‘Rez Ball’ is a story for everyone

Kalle Benallie, ICT

Sydney Freeland has been directing for over 15 years. “Rez Ball” is her first sports movie, capturing the phenomenon that basketball has in Indigenous communities.

Freeland, Navajo, co-wrote the story with Sterlin Harjo, Seminole Nation. She said it was important for her and Harjo to write a story based on Indigenous characters that opposes the “White savior trope” where a non-Native comes into the story to save and teach the Indigenous people how to be better.

“Rez Ball” is about a boys local high school basketball team called the Chuska Warriors in the fictional town Chuska, New Mexico. They hope to secure a state championship after losing their star basketball player. Players face personal challenges and doubt that they can truly make it.

“One of the things that was really important for us is the head coach had to be from the community. So there were all these great unintended positive consequences that came from that sole decision,” Freeland said. “For example if the coach is from the community, if she’s from the reservation herself, when the team faces adversity and when she has to try to lead them and guide them out of the darkness, she has to go insular. She has to find a solution that she would have known coming from the community.”

“Rez Ball” was inspired by the book “Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation” by Michael Powell.

NBA star Lebron James’ production company Springhill Company is one of the producers of the film. And prominent Indigenous actors like Amber Midthunder, Jessica Matten, Dallas Goldtooth, Cody Lightning and Ernest Tsosie appear in the film.

It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Sept. 8. It will premiere in select theaters on Sept. 20.

Freeland said the first iteration of the story was following a girls Native basketball team. However, plans changed but she would be willing to do another movie on them in the future.

“Funny story that people who may not be as familiar, the women's teams traditionally have far more success than the men's teams,” she said.

Freeland said in high school that she did play rezball but wasn’t very good. But she didn’t experience the popularity in which it grew where large arenas were being built on reservations to accommodate its growing fanbase.

“It’s been really fun to see rezball grow over the years,” she said.

“Rez Ball” was shot in New Mexico with the full support, approval and presence of the Navajo Nation government. It features original songs by Indigenous artists like The Halluci Nation and Travis Thompson. The film has Indigenous crewmembers in a variety of departments including the art department, props, costumes and construction.

Notably, it’s Kauchani Bratt’s, Quechua and Coahuiltecan Nation, first role. He portrays the character Jimmy.

He said filming his first movie was both difficult and easy. It was intimidating not having a lot of experience but Freeland helped a lot.

“That’s when I had to lean on people like Sydney Freeland who in her experience has worked with a lot of first-time actors, so her coming to us and really breaking everything down, the whole process and what to expect and having a lot of patience,” Bratt said.

He added what helped too was there were many other first time actors on set and an acting coach.

“Having all these sort of foundational pieces in line for us to be comfortable as first time actors was the part that really helped us through,” Bratt said.

Additionally, the cast grew close like how a real life basketball team would, building a camaraderie off set.

“At some points it might have felt a little too real. I had to reel myself back in, and Sydney can attest to it,” Bratt said. “But with all that comes with that is the authenticity and the chemistry that I think really translates on screen and having watched it with a live audience, at the world premiere at TIFF, they really resonated with the chemistry between the Chuska Warriors.”

Bratt said he realized early on in the audition process that the best he could do was bring his own qualities and interpretation to his character Jimmy. 

“Ultimately, just learning how to break down a script and understanding the motivation of Jimmy,” Bratt said.

He said he watched the Netflix docu series “Basketball or Nothing” to know what Jimmy’s world might look like and feel like, growing up on the reservation. Similar to “Rez Ball,” the docu series chronicles a high school basketball team on the Navajo Nation and their quest to win a state championship.

Freeland said she hopes “people will see themselves represented on screen regardless of your walk of life, regardless of your tribal affiliation, whether you’re Native or non-Native.

Hopefully you laugh, hopefully you cry, hopefully you have everything in between to experience this film.”

"Rez Ball" will be released Sept. 27 on Netflix. 

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