GINA GAMMELL AND RILEY KEOUGH — WAR PONY

WAR PONY—directed by Gina Gammell and Riley Keough—narrates its themes of generational trauma and the dementia of modern life through the electrifying lens of a crime saga. Set in South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation among members of the Oglala Lakota tribe, the film is labor of love and truth many years in the making.

Co-written by Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy, who live on the reservation, the film is careful to avoid what Sioux Bob referred to as “poverty porn,” favoring an aesthetic mix of realism and elegance. Tracking two storylines, WAR PONY mixes searing scenes of emotional power with farcical humor. Twelve-year-old Matho (LaDainian Crazy Thunder) and his gang of boys are already deep in a cycle of transgression and vengeance, while Bill (Jojo Bapteise Whiting), a droll young father, hustles for survival in a world of exploiters. Refreshingly grounded in an everlasting present, the filmmakers have created a document of the gorgeous freedom of youth, no matter what its circumstances.

This Cannes Camera d’Or winner is now streaming. See links and info below for details.

WAR PONY

Directed by Gina Gammell and Riley Keough

Written by Franklin Sioux Bob, Bill Reddy, Gina Gammell, and Riley Keough

Now streaming

https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/umc.cmc.4k59qm6avml2h5d1g5qs1z4qg

https://www.amazon.com/War-Pony-Jojo-Bapteise-Whiting/dp/B0B8QFZ38P

July 28 through August 3

https://www.laemmle.com/film/war-pony

Monica Film Center

1332 2nd Street, Santa Monica

https://www.angelikafilmcenter.com/nyc/film/war-pony

Angelika Film Center

18 West Houston Street, New York City

Gina Gammell and Riley Keough, War Pony (2022), from top: Jojo Bapteise Whiting (standing) and Wasose Garcia on set; LaDainian Crazy Thunder (in red shirt) and cast; War Pony U.S. poster; Steven Yellow Hawk (left) and Whiting; Sprague Hollander (left), Ashley Shelton, and Whiting; Whiting.