Day: May 17, 2025

Remaining Native was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2025! It had its showing on Saturday, May 17th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle Premiere of this film! You can also see my interview with the director, Paige Bethmann, here!

What if you could run away from all of your problems, and never look back in fear? Well for me, personally, I can barely sprint, so running that far seems like the main issue. Cross country running is not my passion.

But it is the passion for Ku Stevens, who at the start of this documentary is a high school student in Nevada, who has made long range running his deal since he was much younger. And basically he was the only one in his school who liked to run at that. And of course, he is a Native American. He stood out in many ways. No one cared about his running, but he was very good at it, and won many a competition, without having many to compete against to really prove himself.

Now Ku has lived in this area for a long time, including many generations of his families. Including his Great Grandfather. Who, like many around that time, were taken from their families and brought to boarding schools just for native kids, where they would be indoctrinated into “American Society” and values. And by that, we also mean abused, beaten, killed, and more if complete assimilation was not met. A tragic place, where many lost their lives, but not Ku’s great grandfather. No, he escaped when he couldn’t take it anymore. And he did it, by running, and hiding, almost 50 miles to get back to his home.

And this documentary is about Ku honoring that legacy, and setting up something called the Remembrance Run. A journey of 50 miles over two days, in the desert summer heat months, to explore his great grandfathers sacrifice, and push himself to his own challenges for his life.

Running doesn’t me escape my problems, but, that’s more because I cannot really run. There are quite a few documentaries lately about these Indian Boarding schools, in the US and Canada, especially due to the discovery years ago of the pit of bodies found outside of one. A mass, unmarked grave, making people couple with this past. I mean, non-natives learned about them in a quick sentence in a class once probably and never again, not knowing the full great and powerful impact. But those families always did, and it is time for the rest of the world to catch up.

I watch every single one of these documentaries I can, and I can say that Remaining Native is the first to tackle the subject in a very specific way. It talks about the tragedies, of course, but also on how to overcome them, how to learn from them, and how to grow from them. It offers a chance of hope. Sure, no one now can really experience and realize how these things were, and know it in their bones, but there are things we can do to make sure these experiences are never repeated, and things we can do to make sure that these forced sacrifices are not completely in vain.

Ku is a kid who was a lot more brave than I was at any point in my life, and wise beyond his years, to set up an event like this. I think he is a great role model, a guy in college right now, still with his whole life in front of him. And Remaining Native is a hard hitting documentary, taking on a hard hitting subject, while keeping it personal at the same time.

3 out of 4.

Fucktoys was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2025! It had its showing on Friday, May 16th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle Premiere of this film! You can see my interview with the director, Annapurna Sriram, here!

Trashtown is not the world you know, it is a sort of alternate universe, where the depraved and hidden aspects of society are allowed to flourish and everyone can live the life they want to live. Without getting judged and ridiculed in response. Sex, drugs, and a little rock and role. Prostitution, psychics, fetish life, showing off your body, all of this and more exist in Trashtown.

Which brings us to our hero on a new adventure, AP (Annapurna Sriram), who has felt down in her life. And according to her psychic, she has been CURSED. But it isn’t that big of a deal, a curse can be gotten rid of with a specific ritual, which would just cost her about $1,000. Hey, that’s a good deal to get rid of a curse. So AP, who already is a sex worker, decides to put her work into overtime to get the cash and get rid of the curse ASAP.

Along the way, she gets to meet Danni (Sadie Scott), an old friend, who is back in AP’s life, and they are going to help her get the money for the curse, and AP is going to help Danni get some work in the process.

Also featuring others like François Arnaud, Damian Young, Brandon Flynn, and Big Freedia.

When the drugs finally hit, your experiences may vary.

Fucktoys does a good amount right for what I would describe as a very experimental movie. First, it gives traditionally underused actors and actresses the ability to play roles they may have always wanted to play, but never an outlet to play them. It gives underrepresented groups more screen time, without making their underrepresented qualities their reason for the role. Everyone just plays a person! It is wonderful to see.

The film intentionally gives off a seedy 70’s indie exploitation film vibe, with the film used and the scenery. I honestly couldn’t tell you when it was set, as the technology use was not fore front. Did someone use a cell phone? Probably! I don’t remember. And it didn’t matter too much to the story, so the strange world created can also be independent of any time period. It can just be free love, man.

Despite the very unique vibes, and free spirited nature of the film, it does seem to still lack something else. No character fully stands out to me. Everyone just exists. The plot feels like a loose vehicle to show off the world, and that is it. For the main character it becomes a repeating loop of “let’s do this activity” and then something goes bad, so her attempts to get the $1000 keep faltering. So the story is light, and almost like a TV pilot just to introduce various concepts. I wish the story had some more intensity too it, but at the same time, the light hearted nature of Trashtown was also the point.

2 out of 4.