Morrisa Maltz – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

MOVIE OF THE WEEK February 7, 2025: JAZZY

February 2, 2025February 2, 2025 Jennifer Merin betsy bozdech, Cate Marquis, Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux, Jazzy, jennifer merin, leslie combemale, Lily Gladstone, liz whittemore, loren king, Morrisa Maltz, nell minow, Oglala Lakota, Pam Grady, sandie angulo chen, Spearfish South Dakota, Syriah Fool Head Means, Vertical Entertainment

As it follows Jasmine “Jazzy” Bearkiller Shangreaux (playing herself), a young Oglala Lakota girl growing up in rural Spearfish, South Dakota, the film — a follow-up to Morrisa Maltz’ The Unknown Country — puts a fresh spin on familiar topics like friendship ups and downs, first crushes, and family dynamics. Filmed over a span of six years as its main characters navigate the transition from childhood to adolescence, Jazzy is made up of beautifully everyday moments in the lives of Jazzy and Syriah (Syriah Fool Head Means), Jazzy’s best friend in both the movie and in real life. The girls ride to school together on the bus, giggle about class gossip, play with favorite stuffed animals, talk about how they wish they could stay kids forever, and generally stay glued to each other’s side. Until Syriah’s family ends up moving away.

Reviews

JAZZY – Review by Nadine Whitney

January 18, 2025January 19, 2025 Nadine Whitney Andrew Hajeck, Jasmine (Jazzy) Bearkiller Shangreaux, Jazzy, Lily Gladstone, Morrisa Maltz, Olgala Lakota, Syriah Fool Head Means, Vanara Taing

Writer, visual artist, and director Morrisa Maltz first met Jasmine (Jazzy) Bearkiller Shangreaux when she was five years old. Jazzy, was shot over several years, spinning off from Maltz’s, The Unknown Country, and is a fictional narrative of best friends growing up together. Jazzy and Syriah (Syriah Fool Head Means) are young Olgala Lakota girls navigating the space between childhood and young adulthood. Their world is impacted by adults; parents, relatives, and schoolteachers. Maltz and cinematographer Andrew Hajeck cleave to the perspective of the two girls. Their discussions on the school bus, their private and shared realms, their faces, and their shifting sense of who they are.

Reviews

THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

July 20, 2023July 23, 2023 Valerie Kalfrin Andrew Hajek, Lainey Bearkiller Shangreaux, Lily Gladstone, Morrisa Maltz, Oglala Lakota reservation, THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY, Vanara Taing

Early in the low-key drama The Unknown Country, a fuzzy-haired waitress at a roadside diner passes out plates with compliments and good cheer. “I try to treat my customers really well because you never know what’s going on in somebody’s life,” she says. Hers is just one documentary-style vignette that fleshes out this theme, showing the hidden lives of people a young woman encounters along a road trip from the Midwest to the Texas-Mexico border.

Festivals Reviews

THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY (SXSW 2022) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

March 12, 2022March 13, 2022 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Lainey Bearkiller Shaingreaux, Lily Gladstone, Morrisa Maltz, sxsw 2022, THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY

If the name Lily Gladstone doesn’t already make you sit up because of her involvement in the much-anticipated forthcoming Martin Scorsese film Killers of the Flower Moon, then her central performance in Morrisa Maltz’s The Unknown Country should be enough to convince you on its own merits. Having previously appeared in roles of varying sizes in Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow and Certain Women, Gladstone is surely not an unfamiliar face for those with a taste for US indie fare. But it is The Unknown Country where she takes center stage and, in collaboration with Maltz and her numerous co-stars, gives The Unknown Country a sense of enormous depth and gravity.