Drunktown’s Finest
| Year | 2014 |
| Starring | Carmen Moore, Jeremiah Bitsui, Morning Star Wilson, Shauna Baker, Taillinh Agoyo |
| Director(s) | Sydney Freeland |
| Genre(s) | Narrative Feature |
| Runtime | 89 min |
| Producer(s) | Chad Burris, Dennis Myktyn, Duncan Sill, Jasper Zweibel, Mateo Frazier, Paul Snyder, Robert Redford |
| Writer(s) | Sydney Freeland |
Life on this Indian reservation outside of Dry Lake, NM feels like a dead end for many of its residents. For three Native American youths, their search for connection and identity forces them to confront this perception. Their stories play out against the backdrop of the traditional values of the reservation which both constrains and supports them. Sick Boy, a young father-to-be trying to find the best way to provide for his family, must choose between his friends’ drunken, partying lifestyle and his girlfriend’s demands for him to grow up. Felixia, a promiscuous transsexual, fights against the reservation’s hostility in pursuit of her dream to be a model, while Nizhoni, a traditional college student trying to find her place in the world must reconcile her adoptive parents’ traditional Christian upbringing with her blood relatives’ superstitious beliefs.
This film crafts an on-screen story that beautifully represents the variety of lifestyles present on Indian reservations by creating characters that reflect three dissimilar cultures found on the reservations– the macho, the LGBT and the religious. The film confronts viewers with the reality of life on the reservation, the staleness that makes people want to leave and the powerful unity that keeps so many there.