NEW YORK CITY – “The Heart Stays,” written, produced and directed by Cherokee and Osage filmmaker Diane Fraher follows the story of two young Native sisters embarking on a self-discovery journey after they leave the safety and traditions of their family to pursue their dreams.
The storyline parallels the values and customs of what it means to be Native and using them to prevail at whatever obstacles fall into your path. One sister is set to attend college while the other decides she is going to pursue a music career.
“I tell stories about the struggle of Native people to identify with their own traditional values within the context of modern society,” Fraher said.
Fraher said she wrote a community-based film that emerges totally from community from the storyline, casting and filming.
“It means to me that it’s an opportunity for people to see an honest story,” Fraher said. “We didn't work through conventional casting directors. I sought out roles. I sought out actors in the community within the community … because that was really important to me to try to bring some really talented people forth. I felt that the conventional casting perspective would be through their lens, how other people saw Natives rather than how we see one another. So, it’s a chance for us to self define, which is pretty unusual.”
While the storyline contains characters of Osage background, several Cherokee actors took part in the film including Cherokee Nation citizen Nathalie Standingcloud. Standingcloud was encouraged by her aunt and actor Kimberly Guerrero to audition for the film. Standingcloud plays aspiring Osage writer Shannon Ki-he-kah-zhe.
“She’s the eldest daughter in her family like myself. We had a lot of similarities during the time of filming, so connecting with her character felt natural. Like Shannon, I experienced culture shock when attending college for the first time and hesitated leaving home for fear of what would happen in my absence,” Standingcloud said.
Standingcloud said she felt honored and humbled to represent Native people on screen.
“Especially along side professional actors like Irene Bedard, Jon Proudstar, Casey Camp-Horinek and Delanna Studi. It was a growing experience for me as a Native person and performer,” Standingcloud said.
The film’s writing and development began in 2014. Fraher added artistic elements to help the film be authentic to Osage culture and background.
“The film includes many wonderful Osage people whose participation both in-front and behind the camera is an essential element to the unique nature of the film,” Fraher said.
Those elements included no fictional locations on the Osage Nation portion of the film, a slower place to reflect the realistic pace of Native peoples’ lives, the cadence of speech to reflect the influence of Native language pronunciation, no subtitles when the Osage language was introduced into the dialogue and several sub-plots to show the interconnectedness of the characters lives.
“‘The Heart Stays’ was produced with Native people in positions of artistic leadership working together with seasoned and talented non-Native professionals,” Fraher said. “I listened, took their wisdom to heart and made it our own as well as worked together in a peer group hierarchy.
The film was produced by American Indian Artists Inc. (AMERINDA), a Native American community-based multi-arts organization founded by Fraher, and is available to watch on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Vudu, Google Play Movies and YouTube.
