An interview with the executive producer of Aitamaako’tasmisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun reveals the true story of a young Siksika woman’s dream to ride bareback in the Indian Relay.

Source: Pender PR

The director, Banchi Hanuse,  had pitched the idea of focusing the story on Logan Red Crow – a female, Indian Relay rider who prepares for one of the most dangerous horse races in the world on bareback. However, the risks of her dream to be a rider meet her father’s determination to protect her from the dangers that come with that choice. While speaking with Carey Newman, themes of ambition in spite of gender become a weaving motif that explores the relationship between Logan, the races and her horse, Sally.

Source: Pender PR

This documentary was predominately shot in Casper, Wyoming on Blackfoot Territory. Newman, whose traditional name is Hayalthkin’geme, is a filmmaker who strives to depict Indigenous, social and environmental issues in his career and art. He came upon this story and provided assistance to the crew and subjects that intimately told a story of love, bravery and determination.

Source: Pender PR

The trailer can be found below:

Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before The Sun OFFICIAL TRAILER from M1 Films on Vimeo.

Interview with Carey Newman

The Knockturnal: I got to watch the documentary and I really enjoyed it. You all did a fantastic job capturing that story. How did you find it?

Carey Newman: I guess it was a combination of things. The original story idea was brought in by Izzy Pullen, one of the producers of the film, and she was at one of these types of races and started talking  to some of the writers. And so she came to me and pitched this idea. I think at the time it was a series of the female riders tell the story, tell the various stories.

And as an Indigenous father who has a young Indigenous daughter who I would love to, you know, have her have some really positive role models to look up to. I thought, what a great story to tell. And just as an Indigenous person, so many of the stories that are told about us, um, look at the the negative, right? Look at the trauma. And this felt like something that doesn’t necessarily turn away from it but wouldn’t be the focus of it. So I was enthusiastic about the project and agreed to help look for some funding to make it a reality.

The Knockturnal: What was the production process like for you all and how were you able to time everything so well with the races, Logan’s story and the family story in general?

Carey Newman: She brought it in, then we secured some funding and that sort of set our schedule because in Canada the funding is often tied to your broadcast schedule and then we went looking for a director and we eventually came to Banchi, who is the director of this.

And I was also felt really strongly we needed to have an Indigenous female director to tell the story. Um, if it’s, if it’s about strong Indigenous women, it should be told by strong Indigenous woman. Um, and it was actually Banchi and she’ll disagree with me on this who really focused the story on Logan, her family. She came up with this.

She sort of read through the transcripts of the interviews that we had. Because she could see in it the love between the family members, the way they cared for the horses, the fact that they had their own ranch, all of it just sort of made sense as the story to tell. I took her at her word and I went back to the funder with her, with our producer Mike, and asked for the film to be changed to a one-off doc.

Then we got into the production and this was all filmed throughout COVID where there was all kinds of disruptions. Sometimes we were scheduled to go to a race and then we weren’t allowed to travel or the race was canceled.

I think that what really made this film work was the commitment that we had to the story at multiple levels from the funder to the creative team and the family themselves and I would say it really became starting to feel like a family right? And and so when when everybody’s on the same page, those disruptions in scheduling don’t derail things the way that they could otherwise.

The Knockturnal: How did you know those were things you wanted to capture and then prepare for that?

Carey Newman: I will put all of the credit for those kinds of nuances into the where they belong and that’s with Banchi. She wanted to tell this as not a talking head documentary, but as a follow-along and for her, and for all of us, I guess that means building relationships and building trust with the people whose story we’re being entrusted with.

Some of the filming comes from like a GoPro that was on her brother’s head rThat was sort of the approach all along. How close we could get to the horses, when we could do what we could do with the drones, that sort of thing.

The Knockturnal: She did a really great job. I mean even the final shot right. I actually and I’m not being facetious, but I actually teared up seeing Logan in the eye of the horse, of Sally. And I was like, look at these parallels. We underestimate females in a lot of things, especially if it’s male-dominated spaces, but then they end up being just phenomenal.

What has this story meant to you for it to be filmed and be a part of that experience with the Red Crow family?

Carey Newman: I couldn’t help but be pulled into to the team, to the family. And when you get to meet Logan and her dad and just like the parallels that you were drawing, between Logan and the horse, watching Logan’s strength early and how much stronger she got.

I mentioned earlier that I’m a dad and I have a 12 year old daughter who is Indigenous. I think it means a lot for me to have the opportunity to participate in bringing forward a story that demonstrates that resilience, that strength.

I think that being able to be part of something positive – I mean, you hear them talk about these things in the film but it’s not focused right. Like grandpa went to residential school, Logan was in an abusive relationship. There’s, there’s lots of layers of gritty reality, but, um, in the meantime they’re still coming through this.

The Knockturnal: Do you mind talking a little bit about what the horses mean to the Red Crow family and just what it means for the Indigenous community to be able to have this story told about the horses and the relationship with them?

Carey Newman: Just thinking about what I’ve been able to observe and what’s in the film itself. The horses, I mean, they call them horse people. They don’t believe that horses showed up with the first settlers.

They believe that that their oral history is talked to horses for for many, many generations. And so that there’s there’s that aspect of it. So they come to their relationship to the horses since time immemorial. I think they’ve built their life around them and they purchase horses, they breed horses and they also capture wild horses…They talk to them like they’re people.vSome people talk to their pets. They speak to [the horses] like companions, like friends, like intelligent beings. And that’s another layer of love. Right? That you see in the film. Like you see the love for each other between the family members. You also see the love between two family members and their horses and their horses back to them.

They’re so close with them. They talk with them, they brush them, they care for them. And it really speaks to like reinforces that notion that they come from horse people. This isn’t something that they’ve kind of learned in their lifetime.

It’s been passed down through many, many generations.