Spotlight on the Native Reel Cinema Festival with Everett Osceola
Welcome back to our July Native Film series! Throughout July, we have explored Seminoles in cinema, and a wide variety of Native Films. We also looked at those you can Stream Right Now. This week, for our final installment of our Summer Film Series, we are shining a spotlight on a very special part of Seminole cinema and Native film. Today, we will share an inside look at the Native Reel Cinema Festival (NRCF)! We’ll also feature a special interview with Everett Osceola, the NRCF founder and cultural ambassador for the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
In our featured image this week, you can see Everett Osceola at an NRCF event on April 26, 2022. The event, hosted by NRCF, Savor Cinema Fort Lauderdale, the Historic Stranahan House Museum, and the South Florida Audubon Society, featured a screening of ‘Wind Across the Everglades.’ As mentioned in our previous blog posts, this 1958 film starred Cory Osceola and Mary Moore Osceola.
During the screening, Everett Osceola discussed the historic Seminole role in the Plume Wars and provided context for the film, sharing that Seminoles originally were hired as trackers for plume hunters. “We would help these hunters, but after awhile it became troublesome because they were taking more than they should,” Osceola said. “Some of these birds we use for our ceremonies and we use some for our regalia. But they were becoming very scarce.”
Osceola also honored the late Mary Moore and her family. At a previous NRCF event, Osceola honored Moore with a lifetime achievement award for her role in the film, naming it the “Mary Moore Lifetime Achievement Award.” You may recall that at this year’s Tribal Fair & Powwow Pat Vegas, member of the band Redbone, was the most recent recipient of the Mary Moore Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Beginning of Native Reel Cinema Festival
The annual Native Reel Cinema Festival happens at the Seminole Tribal Fair & Powwow. Next year, Tribal Fair will be held January 31st – February 2nd, 2025 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood in Hollywood, FL. Born in 2014, the Native Reel Cinema Festival began with a single screening at the Stranahan House in Fort Lauderdale. A Seminole Tribal cultural ambassador, Osceola was asked to screen ‘The Exiles,’ a cult-classic film about a community of young exiled Natives in downtown Los Angeles during the 1950s, along with an updated version.
“Seminole singer/actor Spencer Battiest had just come back from LA, and told me that producer Pamela Peters was looking to redistribute the 1950s movie ‘The Exiles’ and a film she made on contemporary exiled natives called ‘Legacy of Exiled NDNZ.’ I asked if we could show it at Stranahan House, a local historic house in Ft. Lauderdale. I called it Native Reel Cinema Festival.” Osceola recalls in an ICT news article.
Osceola, who had fostered a love of film since a young age, decided to screen it again at Tribal Fair after it was a resounding success. The director and actors attended the screening, and soon others in Native film began to share trailers and films. NRCF as we know it was born.
NRCF Moving Forward
Today, NRCF focuses on highlighting and sharing Native films and cinema, as well as bringing actors and directors to screenings for meet and greets and panel discussions. Osceola and NRCF in many ways not only bring Native films to South Florida, but also make connections throughout the Native cinema space to support young careers and passions.
“I continued Native Reel because I was going to these film fests like imagineNATIVE and nobody in Florida heard about them because we’re way in the South,” he said. “I met Taika Waititi, Māori, and offered to help with his film. Then I get a message on my Facebook that said, ‘Hey, do you mind if we work together? I’m Seminole from Oklahoma. My name is Sterlin Harjo.’ So I brought them down here to Florida. Nobody really heard of them.” Now, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t heard of Harjo.
Osceola has also established a career in film himself, both in acting and producing. He has appeared in ‘A Christmas in Ochopee’ (2021), ‘Don’t Let it In’ (2021), and ‘Halpate’ (2020). He has also been an executive producer for both the ‘Don’t Let It In’ short and feature length films, as well as ‘Ronnie BoDean’ (2015) and ‘Halpate’ (2020). ‘Halpate,’ a 14-minute documentary co-directed by Adam Khalil and Adam Piron, traces the bond between Seminoles and alligators, and the synergistic relationship they share. Osceola, in addition to founding NRCF and being a Tribal cultural ambassador, is also a respected alligator wrestler and featured in the film.
Below, you can see Everett Osceola, founder of the Native Reel Cinema Festival (center) on the set of ‘Don’t Let It In’ with Geraldine Osceola (left) and Daniel Nunez (right). Osceola was an executive producer in the horror film, as well as a consultant on the language used. Filmed with an entirely Native cast, nine cast members were Seminole Tribal Members: Aubee Billie, Carradine Billie, Delilah Hall, Doc Native, Daniel Nunez, Everett Osceola, Mary Jane Osceola, Geraldine Osceola and Avadie Live Stewart. Taylor Kinequon (Cree/Anishabee) and Beniaren Kane (Hidatsa, Ho-Chunk and Prairie Band Potawatomi) also appear in the film.
An Inside Look with Everett Osceola
The heart and soul of Native Reel Cinema Festival, Everett Osceola, was gracious enough to answer some questions for Florida Seminole Tourism about himself and NRCF. Read below to learn more about where he gets his inspiration, and the future of of NRCF!
DB: Where did you get your love for film?
EO: My love for film started at a very young age. My father took me to see a Ninja movie at a drive-in theatre. I remember sitting in his truck with my mother, brother, and myself, getting lost in the film, the action, and how it was in a different land, which I later found was JAPAN. After watching this film, I watched E.T., Wizard of Oz, and many horror movies in the theatre. I love the aspect of growing up that you could go to a theatre or even in your car and watch a film that would help you escape for 2 hours. So, at a very young age, I loved being in the theatre and watching movies.
DB: What inspired you to start the Native Reel Cinema Festival?
EO: There were not a lot of Native/indigenous films being shown or even heard of way down here in Florida, let alone South Florida. I would hear about films, even TV shows from New Zealand, Canada, and South America films. I thought we were just an untold story that is the native of North America.
Until I had a good friend named Houston Cypress reach out to me and say there are many Native Film fests in the U.S. and Canada. I would have to tour the film circuit and look at the films. And do the old college try of networking in person. After traveling and networking with Directors, producers, and actors, I got enough interest to start a little screening, which later became the Native Reel Cinema Festival.
DB: What has been one of the most rewarding moments with NRCF?
EO: I have had a few rewarding moments with NRCF. I saw people I knew through the film festival circuit sleeping on my couch, helping them with funding, and now I see them walk the red carpet and even get nominated for awards such as the Emmys, and one even win an OSCAR, And I can say I know that person. The other aspect is having the youth approach me and say “Thank you” for showing a film that inspired them to get into filmmaking. The most rewarding part was sitting and watching a movie with my family and having them see what I had seen all those years ago. Magic.
DB: What is the mission of NRCF? What is the number one thing you want people to know about you and the festival?
EO: The NRCF’s main priority is to educate and show that native / Indigenous people have always been in cinema—even the Seminole tribe. We were the ones who would help move equipment back in the 1920s to help film documentaries and films. What I believe people should know about the festival is that everyone is welcome. I hope people leave with a better understanding of Indigenous people, such as films, history, issues in Native countries, etc. I believe this is the new way of storytelling.
DB: What inspires you in your career? What goals do you have for yourself and NRCF for the future?
EO: What inspires me is film’s greatness, how it can be an art, and how art can inspire and even save your life. What keeps me going is the ability to share and help open a world through cinema. With that, I would like to work with outside communities such as Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Sarasota, and Tallahassee. I may work with or collaborate with outside festival organizations to help spread the beauty of Native / Indigenous films.
DB: Do you have any upcoming projects you want to talk about, or events to promote?
EO: As of right now, I am working with very talented filmmakers. We may be working on potential workshops with the youth. It’s kind of like a 101 native film workshop showcasing the finished projects during the NRCF event. Because I believe our stories should still be told, whether by word of mouth or on the Silver screen.
We encourage you to check out Everett and Native Reel Cinema Festival on Instagram and Facebook. for the latest event offerings and updates. Also, mark your calendars for the 2025 Seminole Tribal Fair & Powwow and the next Native Reel Cinema Festival! Next year’s event dates are January 31st through February 2, 2025.
Author Bio
Originally from Washington state, Deanna Butler received her BA in Archaeological Sciences from the University of Washington in 2014. Deanna moved to Florida in 2016. Soon, she began working for the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office. Deanna was the THPO’s Archaeological Collections Assistant from 2017-2021. While at the THPO, Deanna worked to preserve, support, and process the Tribe’s archaeological collection. She often wrote the popular Artifact of the Month series and worked on many community and educational outreach programs. She lives in Lakeland, FL with her husband, two sons, and dog.
