Vanara Taing – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

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.