Native films, filmmakers from Oklahoma and beyond make a splash at Sundance

The Sundance Film Festival has been a hub for Native filmmakers to screen work, get funding and network. This year, a number of Indigenous films by Indigenous filmmakers are getting a spotlight and some of them were made in Oklahoma.

Mvskoke Media reporter Angel Ellis found herself in the middle of one of the biggest stories in the Muscogee Nation in several years. It’s unusual seeing as how she’s used to being the one reporting the story-not being a part of it.

Ellis’ journey as a journalist amidst her tribal nation’s fight for a free press is the subject of Bad Press, a film by Native American Journalists Association Executive Director Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler, a documentary editor and director whose work has appeared on Netflix, HBO and FX. The film documents the role of a free and independent press in tribal governments. Only five tribally run media outlets have a free press — and three of them are in Oklahoma.

“One of the things that I want fellow tribal citizens and those in Indian Country to come away with after having watched our film is that, you know, free press in Indian Country supports tribal sovereignty,” Landsberry-Baker said.

Bad Press is one of many movies at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah by Indigenous filmmakers from across the country — including Oklahoma, where they were filmed with local support and crew.

Erica Tremblay’s Fancy Dance follows the story of Jax and her niece Roki as…