Native produced film to premiere at Hollywood’s Chinese Theater

Dan Snethen Director confering with Albert Two Bears III (Rolly, male lead) (Photo courtesy Mark St Pierre)

KYLE—“Mallard’s Road,” a film starring local Lakota actors will have its World Premiere at Hollywood’s famous Chinese Theater, November 24th.
The film is a first on many levels of American and Native American film. It is a Romantic Dramedy, produced entirely on The Pine Ridge Reservation in Medicine Root District, with local production dollars and a USDA Rural Jobs Training Grant which provided equipment and training dollars. The Cloud Horse Art Institute Sponsored Reel Jobs Film School which organized the film school. As a result, it is essentially an All Native Production and certainly an all-South Dakota Production.
Keith Secola, Multi Nami (Native American Music Awards) winning Ojibway musician scored the movie giving it a fresh and distinctly Native Sound. Keith came and scored it live with the editing crew and local musicians.
Five years of film school, taught by Industry Pros, held on long weekends, three years of shooting in July and Executive Producer, Tilda Long Soldier St. Pierre, and Producer-Writer, Mark St. Pierre and Producer-Director, Daniel G. Snethen, have made film history.
Everyone behind the camera, the actual film making crew, are all local young Lakota people. The film was edited for instance by Trevor White Dress who also served as Director of Photography. It has an all Lakota cast. Albert Two Bears III (OLC Graduate and Hunkpapa) as Rolly Lamoreaux is the lead Male, Allyssa Comer (Oglala), Plays Mary Flies at Night, rounded out by Wicahpi Bison (Cheyenne River), who plays Constance Talking Crow.
How is that possible? Little Wound High School has had Varsity Theater for 25 years under the Drama Director, Dan Snethen, a Colome, SD, and Native. It is the only on reservation High School Drama Program in the United States. This gave the producers 25 years of out of school, former stage actors, to work with, resulting in 80% of the cast being Graduates of Little Wound and top Little Wound High School performers.
An ultra-low budget film, “Mallard’s Road”, was made much richer with the use of beautiful local scenery and community based sets and has a Supporting Cast of wonderful characters many of whom also served on the production crew. It is a wonderful tour of modern reservation life and defies the industry players and film makers who have always made the reservation look, scary, or lonely or poverty stricken and backward. Over 100 community members, including local Lakota Business people, helped make this film possible.
The film will have a community showing Saturday November 9th at four O’clock in Nunpa 1 & 2 in Kyle. Tickets will be $3.00 for children and $6.00 for adults. It will have its World Premier at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood at 10:00 AM November 24th. It will have three screenings at the Journey Museum Theater December 21st starting at 10:30 AM.

(Contact Mark St. Pierre at mstp@gwtc.net)

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