The Only Good Indian

With this outstanding revisionist western, Kevin Willmott stakes out new territory in a genre that seemed completely settled. Fancifully configuring the symbols of the genre, he creates a fascinating parable of American history. At the outset, young Nachwihiata lives a peaceful existence with his agrarian family until a band of white marauders attacks their homestead. They forcibly remove him and take him to a white Christian boarding school, where Native children are assimilated into the dominant culture. Renamed Charlie, he chafes under the lie of his new identity and, before long, runs away. He’s soon captured by bounty hunter Sam Franklin, an assimilated Indian who now only aspires to round up other Indians for reward money. The plot thickens when Sam and Charlie are pursued by a cruel, grizzled sheriff, who also wants the bounty on the missing boy. Like a true warrior, Charlie faces repeated tests of his courage and self-awareness, discovering the painful contortions of identity and despair to which many of his race are consigned, and the conflicts that remain even after the Indian Wars have supposedly ended. Willmott constructs a fascinating plot, laced with intriguing twists and ever-higher plateaus of suspense, infused with gothic devices that underline the horrors involved. The Only Good Indian is a worthy fictional account of an essential American story.
CAST
Wes Studi, Winter Fox Frank, J. Kenneth Campbell

Kevin Willmott - Kevin Willmott wrote and directed the critically acclaimed feature film C.S.A: Confederate States of America, which speculated on what our lives would be like if the South had won the Civil War. The film premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. His new film is The Only Good Indian, featured in this year's Festival. Willmott recently completed Bunker Hill, which he produced, directed, and cowrote. He has also written, produced, and directed for television and the stage. Willmott is currently an associate professor in the film-studies department at Kansas University.

Screenings:

Fri. Jan 16 5:30 p.m. - ONLYG163E Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City
Sat. Jan 17 3:00 p.m. - ONLYG17BA Broadway Centre Cinemas VI, SLC
Sun. Jan 18 9:00 a.m. - ONLYG18TM Temple Theatre, Park City
Sat. Jan 24 9:00 p.m. - ONLYG244N Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City
Sun. Jan 25 11:30 a.m. - ONLYG254D Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City