"I hope you make a feature based on this and I will be first in line to buy a ticket to see it. Really an amazing, excellent top-notch [short] film. So well crafted and such care and detail taken with the production design, art direction, use of locations, cinematography, and editing. Excellent casting and performances. Very interesting script and story - a lot of ambivalent possibilities built into it and questions left unanswered but it works because of the way it shifts to a story about the relationships between the people who live on the reservation, their histories with each other, their backstories and the way they all know (and sometimes exploit) each other's backstories. It's very tricky to handle those sorts of character constellations in a script without making it cloying - this script does a very good job of handling this and it adds to the viewing engagement. I also think that the FBI character opens up a layer of commentary about insider/outsider involvement on reservation matters that is rich with implication. Thank you for an enjoyable and suspenseful view (and I'm serious about the feature version)."
Juror 1 - BEA Festival of Media Arts
Juror 1 - BEA Festival of Media Arts
"Excellent work. I am very much looking forward to seeing the story play out. Some of the performances were terrific - especially the Richie character - that actor was superb. The production value was very high and the style and aesthetics were riveting. With all of the different story threads, it could have been a confusing mess if not done properly. This piece was coherent and interesting and, most of all, will leave viewers wanting to know what happens next."
Juror 2 - BEA Festival of Media Arts
Juror 2 - BEA Festival of Media Arts
"Really well done...and I'm not a horror/gore genre fan but I can appreciate the effort to get the dead bodies and the actual killings to look real. This project looked very authentic! I really liked the shots of the news stories...Great production values!"
Juror 3 - BEA Festival of Media Arts
Juror 3 - BEA Festival of Media Arts
"Amazing! A tour de force performance!"
Rush Rehm (Professor of Theater - Directing) "Man, that was INTENSE!! It was dark, it was funny ... The characters were real and interesting and kept me engaged throughout the whole thing."
Bill Burnett (Executive Director of Stanford's Design School) "Bravo! We thoroughly enjoyed the powerful presentation. The actors did a great job and sustained the pace from beginning to end so that it cracked with energy and suspense ... We look forward to learning the actors' names so we can watch for them in the future."
Sandy Citrin (Stanford AVP for Student Life) "I especially love [the] characters and I could completely see this expanded into a full TV show and be able to spend more time with all the characters. Congratulations on such a great piece!"
Mona Thompson (San Francisco based Improv Coach and Creative Facilitator) "Thank you for inviting me to experience this incredibly talented and evocative work! I hope the discussions about the solutions [to these many issues] will happen soon. The work is, wow, extraordinary!!!"
Naomi Brown (Stanford University Psychologist) "Congratulations on a powerful and well produced staged reading of 'Black Warrior of Pyramid Lake.' It was a well acted and paced reading ... The majority of people in the U.S. have no clue about the degree of violence on reservations (domestic violence, violence against women, gang conflicts, criminal related businesses, etc.) I thought the wit, artistic strengths and popular form (Ala 'Breaking Bad,' 'The Wire,' etc.) gave non-Indians an insight into the self-destruction that has now become one of the forms genocide has taken. I brought two friends, one of whom is a leader within her tribe, the Northern Chumash. They both really liked the performance and appreciated the rejection of romanticized portrayals of Indians."
Elisa Marina Alvarado (Artistic Director of Teatro Visión) |