Catch our latest interview with Levi Chambers as he chats with the incredible Sydney Freeland, Kauchani Bratt, and Jessica Matten about "Rez Ball"—a powerful film that dives deep into Native American heritage and the strength of community. They talk about the importance of intersectionality and representation on screen, and how this underdog story is about more than just basketball—it's about unity and resilience.
"Rez Ball" is now playing on Netflix.
"Rez Ball" is now playing on Netflix.
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PeopleTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Levi Chambers with Pride and Gay 80.
00:04Hello, everyone. I'm so excited to be here today. I actually just watched
00:08Res Ball this weekend, and I thought it was great. I only have six minutes,
00:12so I just want to jump in, but both the Native American
00:16and LGBTQ plus communities have fought for visibility and
00:20representation, and this question is for all three of you, and I'm hoping you can each answer.
00:24How do you feel like Res Ball contributes
00:28to the larger conversation about intersectionality and the importance
00:32of telling these diverse stories on screen?
00:36Yeah, you know, I think having the chance
00:40to tell a story like this is, you know,
00:44it's about a community that
00:48a lot of people maybe aren't as familiar with, and so
00:52whenever you're dealing with people from marginalized communities,
00:56like I think for myself, whether it's queer stories,
01:00whether it's, you know, the sports movie genre, you know, I think one of the things
01:04that I really try to focus on is the humanity of the characters, you know, because that's
01:08the thing that we all have in common. That's the universal aspect of
01:12a story that can invite people in who
01:16may not be from that specific
01:20walk of life to identify with a character, with a situation,
01:24to empathize, to sympathize. So I think really for us
01:28it was about focusing on the humanity of the characters and their situations,
01:32whether they're queer, whether they're straight, you know, hopefully that
01:36invites people in to, you know, root for somebody
01:40in the story.
01:43One thing that I personally loved, yeah, like my character alone, but, you know,
01:47there's, it's not just mine, there's JoJo's character too, but I love how
01:51Sydney chose to just normalize
01:55the characters by they just are, as opposed to it being like
01:59this issue in the plot line or something. And I think that has like
02:03the beautiful reverse effect, you know, psychologically of
02:07how you humanize other human beings. And it doesn't matter
02:11your sexual orientation or how you identify, but that it just is.
02:15This is our world. And I think Sydney did
02:19a brilliant job of normalizing that by how Heather Hobbs just happens to be,
02:23you know, to have a female partner, you know, it just is.
02:27So, and I love that. And that's how I always think the world
02:31should be, you know, we just are whoever we want to be.
02:35It's like not a plot line. Yeah.
02:37Well, and I think one thing I want to add to as well too, you know, like
02:41Jess was mentioning, you know, we have a character on the team who is openly gay,
02:45you know, like in the story, you know, and in real
02:49life. And, you know, it was important for me that, you know, we sort of
02:53embrace that and I wanted the team to embrace it as well too.
02:57And so we were able to portray that, I feel like in a very sort of
03:01positive, healthy manner. And it wasn't, you know, in the film,
03:05a character being gay in the locker room wasn't an
03:09issue, you know, and it wasn't in real life either, you know,
03:13so those are little things where it's like, you know, you can shine a light on
03:17something by not shining a light on it and by normalizing it.
03:21Did you have anything to add?
03:25I think they both said it perfectly.
03:29Yeah. Another thing that I really felt came through really
03:33strong in the film is this idea of chosen family, which I know happens a lot in
03:37sports, right? Like your team is your chosen family, but it's also something that's very
03:41central to the LGBT plus experience.
03:45Maybe I'll start with you. How do you
03:49feel that the film reflects that theme in particular and do you feel
03:53like it's represented in the way that the team kind of comes together through all of the trials and
03:57tribulations? I don't want to see any spoilers. I think while snowballing off
04:01of what Sydney was saying about the other queer character that we have
04:05openly on the team, I think that's a great representation of
04:09you know, it doesn't matter where you come from, you're accepted.
04:13You know, that's your family and that is a safe haven for you.
04:17You know, and I think basketball in general within a lot of
04:21Indigenous communities, that safe is sacred in its own right.
04:25But I love how by having a character like JoJo's in the storyline
04:29is also kind of re-emphasizing that
04:33you know, there isn't this bullying thing that always happens on basketball teams
04:37and especially in underrepresented communities. Sometimes they
04:41really are just accepted and that's what you were raised with. I know like
04:45growing up on my basketball teams too, we had a lot of gay people on our team too
04:49and it was never an issue. You know, and I'm from an older
04:53generation too, so I think there's also that to be said that it was very
04:57normalized for me growing up. So it's nice that that's being
05:01spotlighted and highlighted in this film too, which is kind of in a way
05:05innovative in itself.
05:09Sydney, did you want to add anything before we wrap up? Yeah, no, I think
05:13it's an interesting sort of
05:17topic, you know, the parallels of the chosen family. I hadn't quite
05:21thought of it because I can think of very different experiences
05:25but there are definitely a lot of parallels. I think
05:29at the end of the day, we all kind of crave community
05:33and we all kind of need people in our corner and nobody wants
05:37to be an island. Nobody wants to be alone.
05:41I think at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what your walk
05:45of life is. It's like who can you have behind you?
05:49Who can you have supporting you? I think sports is
05:53such a great outlet for that.
05:57I'm racking my brain thinking of all these other parallel experiences but no, it's
06:01a great point. Thank you very, very much for
06:05joining me today. I really appreciate all of your time.