Because of this, Thomas considers him a hero. Arnold rescued Thomas as an infant from a house fire that killed his parents in 1976. Victor and Thomas are brought together through Victor's father, Arnold. Thomas is an eccentric storyteller and Victor is an angry young man who enjoys playing basketball. Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire live on the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation in Plummer, Idaho. In 2018, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The film won several awards and accolades, and was well received at numerous film festivals. ![]() More than ever I'm dedicated to that idea.Smoke Signals is a 1998 coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Chris Eyre from a screenplay by Sherman Alexie, based on Alexie's short story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993). "For me," he said, "the story is about living vicariously with people and honoring them and their spirits. ![]() I love these aesthetics and putting them into movies.” With intended irony, he added: “I grew up like every other white middle class kid."Įyre doesn't necessarily seek films with Indian themes. "You've got to stand next to that piece of work.As a filmmaker you want to gain an audience that trusts you."Įyre said that his upbringing is reflected in his work: "The rural sensibility, the Klamath Falls sensibility. "I'm into making movies that have something to say," Eyre said. In 2011, Eyre is finishing A Year in Mooring, a film by Salem writer Peter Vanderwal. He later directed Skins-shot entirely on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota-and Skinwalkers, Edge of America, Thief of Time, A Thousand Roads, and Taming the Wild West: The Legend of Jedediah Smith, along with commercials and television episodes of Law and Order and Friday Night Lights. In 20 years people can watch that simple movie and still be touched by it.” “It’s really about the element of forgiveness," Eyre said of Smoke Signals, "something that’s universal and that’s one of the things that makes it endearing. The film won the Audience Award and Filmmaker's Trophy at Sundance and became the first nationally distributed feature film that was directed, written, co-produced, and featured American Indian actors. At a Sundance directing workshop, he began developing Smoke Signals, which was bought by Miramar Films. ![]() His second-year film, the ten-minute-long Tenacity, was shown at film festivals worldwide, including the Sundance Film Festival, where it won several awards. He returned to Oregon to make his first feature-length movie, Things Learned Young, inspired by his childhood and successful search for his birth mother, Rose Lumpmouth.Įyre attended New York University's graduate film program from 1992 to 1995. In 1991, he graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in media arts. That interest led to his enrolling in the television production program at Mt. While at Klamath Union High School-he graduated in 1987-he developed an interest in black-and-white photography. People Magazine called him "the preeminent Native American filmmaker of his time."īorn in 1968 in Portland, Eyre was raised in Klamath Falls by his non-native adoptive parents, Earl and Barbara Eyre. An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, he gained national attention in 1998 with the movie Smoke Signals. Chris Eyre, the nation's most celebrated American Indian film director, was born in Oregon.
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