Te Ata

What an amazing film this was. I wish I had known about Te Ata and other historical events before watching this. It would have been very easy for this film to take the typical role of "every white man is bad" and that would have overshadowed the great performance of Q'orianka Kilcher and the filmography! You probably will need some tissues nearby when watching this!

This is a must see movie. Talented performers and above average direction and production values. A movie that teaches us.

Birds of different colors are all bids.

Horses of different colors are all horses.

People of different colors are all Human.

On a recent road trip with my wife, we traveled through South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, all with a large Indian population. We visited Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone and Glacier National Park, all amazing in their own right and I will always remember their beauty. But One of the most remarkable experiences of the trip was during a visit to an amazing sculpture one mile north of Deadwood South Dakota, commissioned by Kevin Costner. It is called Tatonka Meaning Buffalo, it depicts Indians hunting Buffalo by driving them of a bluff. As beautiful as the sculpture was, just as impressive was the Indian interpreter. I will always the pride he had as he talked to my wife and I about his people and his tribe the Lakota. As I watched this movie I kept thinking of that proud young man and how Te Ata expressed the same love and pride for their people.

Te Ata (2016) was directed by Nathan Frankowski, The film follows the life of a remarkable woman, Te Ata Thompson Fisher of the Chickasaw Nation. It's worth checking Wikipedia to learn about Te Ata, who was a truly a unique woman.

Q'orianka Kilcher, who portrays Te Ata, is also a remarkable woman. Her father is of indigenous Peruvian descent. She spent many years in Hawaii, and she has absorbed the indigenous Hawaiian culture as well.

The film is historically accurate. The Chickasaw nation was unwillingly forced to become part of the state of Oklahoma. In the early 20th Century, prejudice against Native Americans was as strong in Oklahoma as it was throughout the United States.

What makes this movie so interesting was that Te Ata rose above these prejudices to present the stories of indigenous people to the rest of the world. She performed in the White House and before the King and Queen of England. She is the type of person whose life cries out for a film biography, and I believe this movie does her justice.

We saw Te Ata at the Rochester's excellent Little Theatre. It was presented as part of the wonderful High Falls Film Festival: Celebrating Women in Film. This movie is both entertaining and important. It will work better in a theatre than on the small screen. However, even on a small screen, it will repay your effort to seek it out and see it.

Story of a famous Chickasaw woman that had to be told in film. A nice short epic of a life that was not too ordinary. Very good indigenous bent during assimilating times.