Jessica Matten of Dark Winds and Amber Midthunder of Prey are featured in the cast of the fact-based drama.
Netflix has released the first official trailer for Rez Ball, the uplifting fact-based drama about Native American high school basketball players set to debut Sept. 27 on the streaming platform.
And to paraphrase Leonardo DiCaprio’s instant-classic line from Django Unchained, they already had our curiosity — but now they have our interest.
Jessica Matten (Dark Winds), Dallas Goldtooth (Reservation Dogs) and Amber Midthunder (Prey) are among the stars of the film, which was directed and co-written (with Sterlin Harjo of Reservation Dogs) by Sydney Freeland (Echo), and is slated to have its world premiere next month at the Toronto Film Festival.
What’s it all about? According to Netflix: “In the heart of Chuska, New Mexico, the Chuska Warriors, a high school basketball team rich in Native American heritage, face their greatest challenge. After the loss of their star player, the team must unite like never before to keep their dreams of a state championship alive. This is more than just a game; it’s a journey of resilience and unity, a true underdog story deeply rooted in Native American culture.”
And what is Rez Ball itself? A distinctive version of basketball predominately played by Native American teams in areas such as Arizona and New Mexico. Rez Ball also is played in some high schools in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, California, and Nebraska.
“For us,” Sydney Freeland says, “this film is an invitation to see a side of America — a community — that [everyone] may not be familiar with. But for myself, for these kids, for the cast, for the crew, this is something that we’ve lived and breathed our whole lives.”
“We’ve done our best to try to capture that experience on-screen, on camera, and we want to share that with people. Hopefully, people watch the film and they walk out feeling like, ‘Oh wow, I didn’t know this was something that existed.’ And hopefully, we can expand people’s horizons just a little bit more.”
“You have these small arenas,” Freeland says, “but they’re just packed with people. Where we were, we don’t have professional teams. We don’t have college teams. A lot of that falls on high school; where a lot of these native teams have had the most success is the high school level. So you get this huge turnout and this rabid fan base. So for us, it was like, ‘Oh, this is West Texas high school football. This is Friday Night Lights, but it is from an Indigenous perspective.’”
The ensemble cast of Rez Ball also includes such notables as Julia Jones (The Mandalorian), Cody Lightning (Four Sheets to the Wind) and Ernest Tsosie (Drunktown’s Finest), alongside newcomers Kauchani H. Bratt, Devin Sampson Craig, River Rayne Thomas, Jojo Jackson, Avery Hale, Hunter Redhorse Arthur, Henry Wilson Jr., Jaren K. Robledo, Damian Castellane, Kusem Goodwind and Zoey Reyes. Inspired by Michael Powell’s critically acclaimed nonfiction book Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation, the Netflix drama has the resounding endorsement of NBA great LeBron James, who is prominently billed as one of the film’s producers.
Here is the first Netflix trailer for Rez Ball.
