"Some days it's a good day to die, some days it's a good day to play basketball"
- Victor Joseph in Chris Eyre's "Smoke Signals"
The University of Wyoming almost never even makes it to basketball's "Sweet Sixteen," and wipes out spectacularly on those rare occasions when we do.
It may, then, seem strange to those who aren't in the know to say that Wyoming is one of the great basketball capitals of the known world. It may seem strange, but it isn't.
It's just that Wyoming's basketball gods very rarely make it to college, and when they do, they don't usually make it through college. And never, ever, do these gods manifest themselves at the University of Wyoming or any other Division I school.
That's because these gods live "on the rez," as budding filmmaker Daniel Junge shows us in his documentary "Chiefs."
Junge spent two years filming the lives of several members of the 2000 and 2001 Wyoming Indian High School boys basketball teams, on and off the court, then heroically edited down all of that footage into a taut, often moving, and definitely illuminating 90 minute film, which aired nationwide last night on PBS's "Independent Lens" program.
There's a lot to love, to be astonished by, and to be saddened by as Junge's images roll on with very little commentary from the filmmaker. These boys carry the hopes of an entire nation with them onto the basketball court, and are expected to live up to a proud legacy – 20 straight trips to the state tournament, numerous state championships, undefeated seasons – ever under the watchful eyes of their ancestors (many of whom were directly involved in establishing that legacy, those record seasons, those statistical marvels, those packed gymnasiums all over Wyoming). Every team in the state, even those from schools in Casper and Nebraska and Lander whose benches hold triple the number of players as the Chiefs because their schools hold ten times as many students as Wyoming Indian, wants a piece of them, making the Chiefs' entire season into an endless repeat of the plot of "Hoosiers."
Except those Indiana boys never had to deal with the social conditions and the occasional racism that were and are a fact of life for young men like Brian Sounding Sides, Ben and Al C'Bearing, and Tom Robinson.
Wisely, Junge does not dwell on these in the maudlin muckraking way of so many documentarians observing the tragedies of indigenous peoples. Junge also wisely does not dwell on the obviously "Indian" elements of these players' lives. A quick shot of a team session in a sweat lodge, a glimpse of a drum circle, are enough, as are quick looks around the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming – an area hard to make look picturesque, and Junge didn't try.
Article comments
1 - foolio
i saw smoke signals and had to have it in my own collection. i'll definiately have to find a time to see "Chiefs" as it sounds as honest.
2 - KLRH
D. Junge has exploited the people of Brasil for his own profits! If he does not give every penny earned from his up and coming movie , to be shown on HBO this month, back to the people he has exploited, he should suffer as they do daily! He gets to come home, to a car, new clothes, running water, paved roads, telephone ect. He has no idea of the suffering the people of Brasil suffer "northern Brasil"! The true conflict going on in a progressive country! Brasil is enegry independent! They control 20% of the worlds fresh water. They have a God given right to use the natural resourse given to them, as anyone does in any country! The myths of the timber industry destroying the one thing they need to surive, has been preverted by people like Junge! People this is a problem that has nothing to do with the Timber industry, just think to yourself, why would they burn the trees? There are only a few species even worth cutting!
It is terrible enough that a person gave her life to God and tryed to help the people she came to love so much, but for him to act like he really cares, is like a FAT M. Moore acting like he is starving, for anything! Americans have everything the People of Brasil don't! Just going down their and doing some film footage, and interviews, which will be slanted and bias is not enough! He should be brave enough, to go down their with the suit cases of cash he will receive and has received and play Robin Hood!
Not a donation, not just a percentage, but every penny of it should be given to every man , women and child from that area, like a Class Action Lawsuit, but better, no lawyers fees! HE should give his entire life to those people by giving up his citzenship to the USA, move to the area, and work right alongside with the rest of the people in that town, which is now at a stand still, and will only get worse after this movie goes out to the millions of people that will watch this bias bunch of bull used to hurt a already hurting town,country, and global economy!
People should put as much pressure on D. Junge to pay everything he has made back to these people and the industries he is trying to hurt and place blame on for the death of a child of God! She knew she was in danger, and choose to stay! He , if he really cares, should do the same, give it all back, including himself to those suffering, now without work, or any sign of it ever coming back! They cannot just catch the next private plane in and out of that region as he did, and relax in a Hotel before hitting the red carpet at the next Sundance film Fest.
D.Junge, give it back! And give yourself! For all the additional suffering you will and are causing to a already terrible thing! Your a profit Barron, just like the people you blame for "sister" losing her life!
3 - brad moman
this movie sucked
4 - brad moman
it sucked really bad
5 - brad moman
it was okay i guess not i didnt really like it at all