With garbage from Zach Braff that could easily find funding from the change in his couch sucking up millions of $$$ in Kickstarter donations, actual good films that bring something new are feeling the pinch. Thus, something that looks like it will be a very cool story is on the track to failure. So if you got some extra money, toss it towards the film Lee. It takes place on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and will feature local residents who are not professional actors.

Lee looks Let’s let Lee speak for itself:

Plot:

Lee is a seventeen-year-old Lakota boy who idly spends his days in young love with his kind and ambitious girlfriend Aurelia, his nights carousing with his loyal and wayward best friend Evan, and avoiding anything to do with his broken home life. When his sister unexpectedly dies and his home is taken away from him, Lee is driven to keep his family together at all costs, but his risky actions have consequences that forever alter his most cherished relationships. Filled with vitality and unexpected humor, LEE is the story of one young man’s winding path to self-discovery.

Director Chloé Zhao sez:

I wasn’t always a filmmaker. I studied Political Science in college and focused on American Politics. I have always been aware of the political history of Pine Ridge, but it was the growing news of teen suicide on both Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservation that brought me there.

Teen suicide is a very personal topic for me. I was born in Beijing, China, and was a teenage girl at a strange time when the Communist country first opened its door to the world in the 90s. New information poured in and everything I was told about my identity turned out to be lies. Out of confusion and frustration, teen suicide became a big problem. It is extremely dangerous to take away one’s culture and identity and try to replace it with something completely foreign. The Lakota teens today are experiencing a similar phenomenon that adds to the confusion they already experience while transitioning into adulthood. Our protagonist, Lee, is one of these teens. Although Lee’s journey isn’t easy, he realizes the solution isn’t to run away, but rather find acceptance so that he can live each coming day with hope.

I want this film to capture the grand and breathtaking quality of Pine Ridge and its landscape. I also want to create an intimate and subjective portrait of the people by working with a cast made majority of non-actors who have lived their entire lives on Pine Ridge. Since I first visited Pine Ridge three years ago, I have developed close relationships with many Lakota teens. Their personal stories inspired me to write this film. And now some of them will be acting in this film and will soon see themselves on the big screen. To let them tell their story has been a very personal and passionate journey for me. The screenplay has constantly been updated and rewritten because the whole process never stops being inspired and guided by the stories I’ve learned and the people I’ve met everyday on Pine Ridge. By placing intimate moments of a teenager’s growing pains in the middle of the stillness, spirituality and solitude of the land that made him who he is, I want to put the audience inside of Lee so they see, hear, and feel everything he does. I believe Lee’s journey can demystify how the world perceives life on Pine Ridge, and hopefully convey an empowering message to all teens that live Lee’s story every day.

Chloé

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