The Original Shareholder Experience
Writer/Director: Petyr Xyst
Executive Producers: Shaandiin Tome, Erica Tremblay
Producers: Autumn Billie, Lauren Begay, Petyr Xyst
Starring: Briana Gonzalez, Sierra Rose Standing Cloud Tyrrell, Danny Martha, Michel Hall
Language: English (closed captions available)
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1, 1.33:1
Runtime: 13:25
Filming Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Year of Production: 2021
Year of Completion: 2022
Country of Origin: United States of America
An Indigenous telepresenter contends with her career and her credibility when her superiors ask her to sell a genocidal product on live television.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT This film was born from my experiences with the entertainment industry at large, especially from the impressions I got in studio boardrooms where executives and other decision-makers I felt saw me as a marketing tool before they saw me as an artist. Perhaps cynically (and perhaps not), I became worried that their Diversity and Inclusion initiatives were ways of managing the very real uproar around the lack of BIPOC voices through vacant and performative platitudes and, perhaps even worse, were ways of expanding their organizations into new markets — untapped money wells — rather than genuine investigations into the ways they’ve participated in segregation and exploitation within the private sector. I felt myself harboring an intense existential crisis in whether or not I wanted to participate in that side of the film industry — the studio side — that may give me an ability to exercise my perspective to an extent, but also carried the risk of extreme compromise. It is not a question I have answered yet for myself, but this film is functionally a self-reflection of the panic I feel as a young person entering the entertainment industry.
As I developed the short through Sundance’s Native Lab, I found that I wasn’t nearly alone in this troubling feeling. I believe it was extremely conducive to the palpability of the dread to have hired BIPOC, specifically Indigenous, creatives to funnel their own experiences into whatever role they took on. From actors to production designers to gaffers, everyone participated in the project with a passion for the story because it reflected their own experiences in many ways. Having traveled with the film to different festivals, I have also seen that other marginalized people of all stripes have related strongly to the film’s exploration of morality.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR Petyr Xyst is a Laguna Pueblo (American, if you have to) human who has been making movies since the age of five, and for some reason has kept with it even though every project seems specifically designed to kill him in the process. His work spans narrative, music video, experimental, and more with a typically absurd, sometimes surreal lens. In 2019 he was nominated for Rolex’s Mentor and Protégé initiative and is an alum of Sundance’s Indigenous Program. He is a graduate of the University of New Mexico and has no opinion on paper straws.
ABOUT THE EPS
Shaandiin Tome is a filmmaker based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her breakout, award-winning short film Mud (Hashtł’ishnii) premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2018, with foreign debut showings worldwide elevating her as a writer/director. She returned to Sundance in January 2022, co-directing ‘Long Line of Ladies,’ a short documentary where it was premiered. The short film was bestowed with the ‘Documentary Shorts Jury Award’ at SXSW. Shaandiin is listed as one of Marie Claire’s Top 21 Creators to Watch in 2022, for her artistry and work in film.
Erica Tremblay is a writer and director from the Seneca-Cayuga Nation. She recently worked as an Executive Story Editor on Reservation Dogs at FX, where she directed her first episode of television for the series. Her feature project, Fancy Dance, was accepted into the 2021 Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Labs. In 2021, she was also awarded the Walter Bernstein Screenwriting Fellowship, the Maja Kristin Directing Fellowship, the SFFILM Rainin Grant, and the Lynn Shelton Of a Certain Age Grant.
Produced by Autumn Billie, Lauren Begay, Petyr Xyst
Associate Produced by Janel Riley, Jennifer Rozycki
Cinematography by Matt Mesibov
First Assistant Camera Aaron Hime
Second Assistant Camera Vaughn de Neef
Key Gaffer Christina Zuni
Key Grip Ian Baker, Keanu Jones
Production Design by M.J. Rainsong, Kymon Greyhorse
HMU by Juana Torivio
Edited by Petyr Xyst
Sound Edited by Aaron Hime
Mixed by Anders Bloom, David Gallander
Music by Benjamin Doherty
Colorist Michael Thomas
Additional VFX by Kayli Nordby
Funded with support from the Sundance Institute and Santa Fe Film Institute
Screenings:
National Film Festival for Talented Youth (Seattle, USA)
deadCenter Film Festival (Oklahoma City, USA)
Sundance Institute Indigenous Shorts Tour (USA)
Palm Springs International ShortFest Film Market (Palm Springs, USA)
imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival (Toronto, CAN)
Santa Fe International Film Festival (Santa Fe, USA)
Indie Memphis Film Festival (Memphis, USA)
Los Angeles Skins Fest (Los Angeles, USA)
NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (Los Angeles, USA)
