Daisy Jones & The Six, one of the most talked-about shows of the year, stars the granddaughter of Elvis Presley.
However, when it came to filmmaking, Riley Keough and her British-Australian co-director Gina Gammell “struggled” to secure funding for War Pony, their first film.
“There’s a lot of talk and I think there’s a lot of effort, but I’m not sure if the decision-makers are completely there yet,” she says.
I don’t know if some people have realized that women can hold positions of authority and be trusted.
War Pony follows two young Native American males trying to find their way in a world with few chances. A mostly local cast and first-time performers recorded it on Pine Ridge Reservation, the Oglala Lakota’s land, in South Dakota.
Last year, it won the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, which is awarded to the festival’s finest first feature film. At times, Keough questioned whether the film would be completed.
Keough explains, “You have two females making their first feature with a completely indigenous cast of, quote-unquote, no market value, and no movie stars.”
“Because Gina and I own a production company, we frequently observe the disparity in funding between males and women, regardless of whether they are first-time filmmakers. And it remains a significant problem. In the end, we had amazing financiers who understood the vision and came together to support us, but before that, you know, it was pretty depressing.
Gammell continues, “After completing a week of filming, we would make phone contacts to secure funding for the following week.
“And we were extremely fortunate to have made it through, as we just barely did. It was extremely difficult.”
Elvis’ familial ties
The film has received a score of 91% on the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes, with Empire calling it “restrained but promising stuff from Keough and Gammell, who exhibit strong world-building and a light-handed filmmaking touch.” The film is now being released in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States.
In January of this year, Keough’s mother, Lisa Marie Presley, died of a cardiac arrest at age 54, three years after her brother, Benjamin, passed away. In May, Keough and her grandmother Priscilla Presley agreed with Presley’s estate.
She began acting as an adolescent, and her first prominent role was in the Joan Jett biopic The Runaways (2010), starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning. She also starred in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).
Daisy Jones & The Six, a film based on a novel about the 1970s Los Angeles music scene, has elevated Keough’s profile as an actress, but she has always wanted to direct and write as well.
“With acting, I’ve just been extremely fortunate,” she explains. “I secured my first audition, which fueled my desire to continue. But had I been allowed to direct at the age of 18, it may have gone in a different direction.
“I enjoy writing as well,” she continues. “I’ll write for anyone who wants me if there are no constraints. I tend to write in a stream-of-consciousness style.
War Pony began during a pause in filming Andrea Arnold’s 2016 independent film American Honey, in which Riley Keough starred. During filming in South Dakota, she met Bill Reddy and Franklin Sioux Bob, two extras in the film.
Later, Keough and Gammell visited them at their home on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and a rapport developed before the conception of the film. War Pony is ascribed to Reddy and Sioux Bob as co-authors, and its plot is based on their life experiences.
“They are the storytellers in this case, and I believe Riley and I are the vessels that help them capture the story.” “However, it is very much their story,” says Gammell.
Franklin Sioux Bob believed this unique idea was genuine, unlike others proposed to Pine Ridge Reservation Native Americans.
“Many items pass through our reservation, much like this scenario, and they are predominantly unilateral. They came, observed, took advantage of it, and then departed, which was not the case. People will leave, but Riley and Gina returned; they gave us their word and kept it by consistently returning. This is not just a business relationship; these are my peers,” he explains.
“Native Americans are becoming fashionable in film, but this is different because when we began this film years ago. We had no idea it would reach this point.”
War Pony depicts the poverty and lack of opportunity experienced by many people living on a reservation, which Keough condemns as a result of “the indigenous people of our country being forced to live as capitalists.”
“They must live in unconventional ways to be accepted in their own country,” she explains.
“One of the qualities that Gina and I admire most about these lads is their creativity. Due to the scarcity of employment opportunities, individuals must be resourceful, work hard, and generate new ideas to endure. The resilience and ability of these individuals to existing in this manner is also very traumatic and chaotic.
You don’t learn this in school in the United States unless you were reared near a reservation. You don’t know where indigenous people live or what their lives are like. It is so far away. “And on purpose isolated.”
“I believe the broken ideals of the ‘American Dream’ profoundly affect them,” Gammell continues.
After War Pony, Keough and Gammell want to direct again, but “nothing has grabbed us” yet.
“I believe that for us, the standard War Pony set in terms of how much we care about whom we collaborate with must affect us emotionally in the same manner. We have had such a profound collaboration that I believe it would be difficult to go backward.”
