Songs My Brothers Taught Me
Description
Johnny, a restless Lakota teen, and his spirited little sister Jashaun, live with their troubled mother on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. While Johnny looks for ways to escape his nihilistic life on the reservation by moving to LA with his girlfriend, Jashaun is holding onto her faith in the community and the simple pleasures she finds there. Things start to change after the funeral of their estranged cowboy father and Johnny’s reckless behavior begins to catch up with him. After finding out about Johnny’s plan to leave, Jashaun wanders away from her ruptured home life, exploring the rodeo world of her late father and forming an unlikely friendship with an ex-con. Jashaun’s spirit is put to the test as she witnesses the self-destructive nature of those around her. While Johnny, who finds himself in a fight he can’t win, is in danger of losing all those he holds dear. —Cinereach
Chloé Zhao’s 2015 feature debut, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, premiered in US Dramatic Competition at Sundance, Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes and was nominated at the 2016 Independent Spirit Awards. She was supported by organizations like Sundance Institute, San Francisco Film Society, IFP, Film Independent, Cinereach and Time Warner Foundation and was named one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine. Chloé was born in Beijing, received her BA in Politics from Mt. Holyoke College and MFA in Film Production from NYU. She plans to make more films and friends in the American heartland.