Smoke Signals 5
JANUARY 15, 2003
icki Free Concert Rocked
Cherokee and Comanche singer, songwriter showed why he is NAMA's 2002 "Best Male Artist."
By Ron Karten
Micki Free's Oregon fans enjoyed a blast from present and past at the
Education Division gymnasium in Grand Ronde, where the artist formerly
with Shalamar performed just before Christmas.
His on-stage and in-the-audience performance included covers from the
best work of The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix as well as his own
award-winning song, Wounded Knee.
Joined on stage by bassist Jon Brant, a Cheap Trick band member from
1981-87, and drummer Dennis Tieken, who has played with blues artist
Buddy Guy, and
whose doffed
shirt and flying,
long, straight,
blond hair
brought both the
sounds and sights
of big name Rock
& Roll to town.
"We all had a
wonderful time
there," said Free
in a post concert email. "The people
made us feel like we were playing
for old friends. . .It moved me to feel
such love from total strangers. . .we
can't wait to come back to our
friends there."
Discovered by Gene Simmons of
the rock group Kiss in the 1980s,
Free has worked with Diana Ross,
Prince and Janet Jackson, and he
wrote music for movies including
"Beverly Hills Cop" (winning a
Grammy for "Best Album of an
Original Score Written for a Mo
tion Picture") and "Footloose."
Learn more about Free at his
website: wwwmickifree.com, and
take a look at "Cherokee Free's Na
tive American Jewelry" and "True
Native," companies through which
W
Micki Free
Free sells Native American jewelry
and clothing at
www.cherokeefrees.com.
PBS Broadcasts Navajo Documentary
Rocks with Wings soars with honesty and respect.
Movie Review
By Ron Karten
Rocks with Wings, a sports documen
tary about a Navajo high school girls'
basketball team that ultimately wins
a state championship, is more than
that. It seeks meaning from competi
tion and harmony, race and tradition,
societal expectations and even in the
way it is made, about respect.
"I was watching a creation story, a
resurrection story, a mythological story
unveiling in front of my eyes and no
one would believe me," said director
Rick Derby about the ten plus years
he put into this work. Derby is an in
dependent in the New York City film
and video industry who also edits tape
for Turner Broadcasting and Dateline
NBC. "This is a keyhole glance into
the universe through a basketball pro
gram in a small community.
The story follows Jerry Richardson,
an African American basketball star
who leaves college in Texas without
finding a professional team. Instead,
he accepts a seemingly downbeat job
coaching a losing girls' basketball team
in Shiprock, New Mexico, a small town
where, according to the director, the
high school was run by Mormons and
served a Navajo reservation.
The community does not know
Richardson's skin color until he ar
rives, the kind of detail that opens the
issue without pouring kerosene on it.
"They needed a teacher," Richardson
says in the film, "and I couldn't afford
to go home."
There are a lot of directions in which
New York City director Derby could
have taken the story at this point, but
he sticks with basketball. "What
makes (the story) so unusual," said
Derby, "it's not about victimization ....
While it's necessary that the truth be
told, Rocks is one of the first that tells
a story of resurrection. This is a con
temporary story that Native Ameri
cans can get their hands on and em
brace. I was reaching for emotional
sovereignty. What good is it if you get
your land back if you are still emotion
ally oppressed?"
Head Coach Richardson is high
strung and his competitive spirit
comes into conflict with a Native com
munity spirit that is about harmony,
that is low key and accepting. One
can almost imagine that if the town
were wound as tightly as Richardson,
it may not have accepted him at all.
(And in fact, a few years after the
action of the film, after Richardson had
left the school, a friend of his, another
African American, was found mur
dered and left in an irrigation ditch
in town. The unsolved murder sug
gests the powder keg from which this
film draws its power and meaning.)
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") St 1 m. 1 T
The story is told through interviews
with girls from the team, members of
the community, Richardson, Bill
Dowdy, an older, less intense, white
guy who is assistant coach, and
maybe most important, the look of a
team that gives everything it's got on
the court. In the director's view, "the
play (on the court) was the
externalization of their spiritual, psy
chological and emotional processes."
Dowdy tries to smooth over
Richardson's hard edge. This leaves
Richardson thinking that he is being
undermined, and creates uneasy loy
alties among the team and members
of the community.
The two hour film devotes an in
credible amount of time to actual bas
ketball play, the subject that brings
together coach, team, filmmaker,
community, and audience. Derby lik
ens the time on the court to the car
chase in another kind of film.
With the voice of veteran announcer
Dave Schaeffer describing the action,
the issues are all brushed aside for
the sheer excitement of the game.
Derby used tapes from radio broad
casts in which the noise in the sta
dium was so intense that Schaeffer
was literally
screaming his
broadcast into a
telephone.
"What makes
Rocks a more dy
namic film (than
Hoop Dreams) is
that no one is a vil
lain," said Derby.
"Everyone had an
ingredient for their
recipe for success.
The film is more
about how do we
come together de
spite our differ
ences, our conflicts."
At a screening in
Window Rock, Ari
zona, capital of the
Navajo Nation, Dowdy told the direc
tor that "the same story happens in
every program, and it's just a ques
tion of whether you get over (the con
flicts) or not."
The production was held up by law
suits, bankruptcies, floods, and Na
tive "witching." On the other hand,
it was spurred forward by a Ford
Foundation grant and the help of
many, including CTGR Tribal Elder
and former Tribal Council Chair
woman Kathryn Harrison who served
on the director's advisory board and
suggested that the power of the film
could be found in the support of the
community for the team.
"With many different cultures rep
resented," said Harrison, "we were
asked what was important to our
people. I thought giving encouragement
and passing on our ideals to young
people, and the spiritual part," she said.
She described the spiritual part as "tra
dition, and praying for one another.
Putting trust in the Lord. That's what
helped us to survive and endure
through the generations," she said.
"You have your instincts," said
Derby, "and you do the emotional
math, but you need to have things
validated and illuminated for you." In
that respect, "Kathryn shared some
serious and deeply personal stories.
And that let me know what I was do
ing and how to do it."
The documentary aired last month
on the Public Broadcasting System
after wide exposure at film festivals,
including the Hawaii International
Film Festival (2001), American In
dian Film Festival (2001), Slamdance
Festival (2002), DC Independent Film
Festival (2002), Wisconsin Film Fes
tival (2002), Taos Talking Pictures
(2002), USA Film Festival in Dallas,
Tx (2002), First People's Festival of
Montreal (Second Prize, 2002), Silver
Lake Film Festival in LA (2002),
Williamstown Film Festival (2002),
NY Urbanworld Film Festival (Best
Documentary, 2002), Native Cinema
Showcase sponsored by the
Smithsonian Museum for the Ameri
can Indian (2002), Native American
Film and Television Alliance Film
Festival in LA (Best Feature, Vision
ary Award given to the Director,
2002).
And in truth, the project is not fin
ished. "The story kept happening in
front of me and I kept shooting," said
Derby, who has four more episodes
waiting "for a little bit of money, and
PBS to say, 'Come on.'"
The title, by the way, comes from a
rock formation in town called, "Rock
with Wings."