It’s A Cinematic Revolution First Movie Written, Directed, Produced By Native Americans

Two guys get on a bus.

From actor Evan Adams’ point of view, this could be the opening scene in a filmmaking revolution.

It occurs in “This Is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” the first movie written, directed and co-produced by Native Americans.

“Cinematically, it will be the first time we’ve spoken for ourselves,” Adams said as filming began this week.

“It is Native American in its style, its perspective. … People will look back and say it really was revolutionary. It really started something.”

The comment got a lunchtime chortle from his co-star, Adam Beach. “It’s started my career, that’s for sure.”

In the career of Sherman Alexie, the film begins a third phase.

The poet and novelist is a screenwriter now, having adopted “This Is What it Means” from his collection of short stories, “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.”

Alexie, a Seattle resident, grew up in Eastern Washington. He’s half Coeur d’Alene Indian, half Spokane Indian.

His “Lone Ranger” stories were set on the Spokane reservation, where Alexie is the hometown boy who did well but where some people are unhappy with his characterizations.

When officials on the Coeur d’Alene reservation heard that the movie would be made, they issued an invitation.

“Ernie Stensgar, the tribal chairman, called my mom and said, ‘Junior can film his picture here any time,”’ Alexie said.

So the film crew is here in Worley, a town of 180 people along U.S. Highway 95.

On Tuesday, Alexie stood under a blue canopy erected in the parking lot of a vacant cafe. He eyed a video “Roll it!” someone shouted.

Adams and Beach boarded the bus.

The young actors portray friends Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire. They’re bound for Phoenix to retrieve the ashes of Victor’s father, a man he barely had known.

“Along the way, Thomas’ storytelling revives their memories of Victor’s father as well as their youthful past, turning this simple road trip into a touching, soul-searching journey into their childhood.”

Those words are from a press release. But they’re certainly not hype from director Chris Eyre’s perspective.

Eyre, a Cheyenne/Arapaho Indian from Oregon, was indeed touched by the story. He was studying filmmaking at New York University when he read Alexie’s book in 1993.

“I called him and said, ‘I really love your material and I’d like to make it into a movie.”’ The story was a refreshing change from the usual romanticized, political fare about Indians.

“It was personal,” Eyre said. “Contemporary.”

In 1995, he and Alexie were selected to attend the Sundance Institute, a famous laboratory for promising filmmakers.

In 1996, Eyre was one of five directors to receive the Cinema 100/Sundance International Award. He and Alexie were recognized as the team from the United States who best represented the next generation of creative talent.

The award included cash and a licensing agreement for all Japanese broadcasting rights to their film. That will pay for a small part of making the movie, said Larry Estes, who is producing the film for ShadowCatcher Entertainment of Seattle.

Estes wouldn’t say what the movie is costing. But he pointed out that crew members are driving their own cars and eating breakfast at McDonald’s.

“The budget is very, very low because the more you spend on a movie, the more you have to aim for an audience. We want to make the best story we can - then unleash it on an unsuspecting world.”

He’d love to repeat the success of his film “sex, lies and videotape.” Made in 1988 for $1 million, it grossed $60 million in movie theaters alone.

Estes is a former Columbia TriStar executive.

“In the three years since I’ve been gone, I’ve made 11 independent films. None of them were from material as good as this.”

He likes the story’s combination of universal theme and unusual setting. He likes the understanding it fosters.

“We all have these stereotypes about Indians,” Estes said. “I feel like I never knew anything until I read this and met Sherman and Chris.”

The other producer is Scott Rosenfelt, whose movies include “Home Alone” and “Mystic Pizza.” Alexie described the cast as the cream of Native American actors, including Adams (who appeared in “Hawkeye” and “Black Stallion”) and Beach (star of Disney’s “Squanto: A Warrior’s Tale.”)

Filming here is expected to wrap up May 10. After that, the cast and 50-person crew will spend a couple of days in Spokane. The final scene will be filmed in Riverfront Park.

Finally, the “Arizona” scenes will be shot in the dry landscape around Soap Lake, Wash.

Production is to be completed this fall. Filmmakers hope the movie will be in theaters next year. That depends on finding a distributor.

They hope to be invited to January’s Sundance film festival, where distributors show up in droves.

Alexie calls “This Is What it Means” a buddy movie and a “dramedy.”

“It’s part drama and comedy,” he said. “A lot of it has to do with poking fun at cinema images of Indians.”

Alexie is co-producer.

He wasn’t sure what that would mean. Turns out, he’s been involved in many creative decisions, from casting to choosing the urn in which the ashes of Victor’s father are carried home.

Of course, he’s not calling all the shots. That’s a bit painful for someone used to what Alexie calls the “absolute total dictatorship” of writing.

“This is a huge collaborate effort,” he said. “It’s socialism at its finest and its worst.”

Alexie comes from a family of movie addicts - “We had one of the very first VCRs” and he relishes the idea of having a mass audience.

“I sell a lot of books for a literary writer. I don’t sell a lot of books for a popular writer,” he said. “Even if this movie is a flop, a million people will see it.”

That got a rise out of Eyre.

Said the director with a harrumph: “It’s not going to be a flop!”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos