A Message from the Author Debra Magpie Earling of Perma Red

Our Stories, Our Land, Our Time

The television adaptation for this highly acclaimed literary work is rooted in the history of Séliš (Salish) storytelling. 14,000 years ago, when the Séliš began to inhabit the
ancestral homeland, now known as the Bitterroot Valley and Flathead Reservation,
Salish languages, songs, and narratives were heard across the land before the sea of
colonization threatened to drown Salish voices and traditions. We hope Perma Red will
ignite a new generation of Selis and Native storytelling.

Perma Red-Television Series

Perma Red, based on the award-winning novel by Séliš author Debra Magpie Earling, brings to life the story of a young Séliš woman, Louise White Elk.  Smart, strong, and beautiful, Louise plays pranks, challenges boys and men to race her, breaks horses, dives in the dangerous waters of the Flathead River, saves her sisters from BIA officials, and lives as a free spirit in a world that denies Indians freedom.  

A 2011 Statistics Canada report estimates that Indigenous women are seven times more likely than other women to be victims of a homicide. Murdered and missing Indigenous women is a story as old as Lewis and Clark and now that terrible story is epidemic.

In reclaiming our stories, Natives are able to give a voice to those that have for too long been voiceless in the mainstream. Call it the decolonization of the arts, because through art and film we have the ability to change lives and influence society, but change can only occur through authenticity and respect.

We are almost to our goal but we need your help to fund the Pilot Episode! We are grateful to our donors and the Montana Film Office. This final push will get us to reach our budget goal to shoot the 45-minute Pilot Episode!

Who are we? Cast/Crew

We are a group of filmmakers, historians, writers, singers, actors, artists and advocates.  We believe in the power of media to change lives and to influence society. But we believe that change can only occur through authenticity and respect.  Perma Red  has the capability of refocusing the perception of Native Americans and changing America.

                                                        

Frank John "Johnny" Arlee

Salish Language and Cultural Advisor/Technical Advisor, Actor

                                   

 

Read full bios at our website: http://www.permaredfilm.com/cast-crew/

 

 

Storytelling Ignites the Fire

Native stories, language, tradition, and knowledge have been extracted and exploited
like all of our resources. This is the unfortunate legacy of colonization.

But storytelling decolonizes.

When we tell our own stories; we reclaim our stories.
We change lives through art and film.
We give voice to the voiceless.
Decolonization of the Arts begins with the original people.

Bridging Communities Ignites Hope

Storytelling ignites the fire colonization wanted to extinguish.

Perma Red is building an infrastructure to promote Native Storytelling for years to come. With issues like Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and suicide reaching epidemic proportions in Indian Country, Natives across the United States need to come together to find solutions. 

Perma Red as a limited television series will be more than entertainment, it will be a viable job resource for the Mission Valley and Flathead Indian Reservation and will have ⅔ crew ratio of Native to White to honor Indigenous filmmaking. The script will include Salish dialogue, and there’s a need for crew, dancers, singers, cast, and consultants to ensure cultural sensitivity and accuracy. With the success of the series, more film projects would create financially viable jobs on and off the reservations honoring and encouraging the voice of culture through storytelling.

In an area wrought with high suicide rates, seeing an entire community unite behind the series will instill a sense of local and tribal pride and hope that cannot be understated. Their humanity, their struggles, and their hardships finally matter to a seemingly indifferent world. Elders and little kids alike proud they are part of a movie about where they live who they are, because through art, through literature, through film, they mattered.

Mentorship

We are also working with Salish Kootenai College to incorporate mentor programs for Native American youth to learn about working on a set as a director, producer, writer and personal assistant. In that, Perma Red is comprised of a crew of a highly accomplished women and men of their respective fields encompassing above-the-line roles from directing to producing—50% of whom are Native women. These statistics—unheard of on a production set—create an environment of passionate, collaborative, and progressive filmmaking. Not only does this provide an avenue and safe space to exercise the female gaze, it also creates a process of female-led mentorship and shared vision sorely needed in the cinematic world of today with the reality of #MeToo plaguing the industry. We can simultaneously lift women up in film and stimulate the creation of long term professional jobs in Montana and on the reservation for them.  

Finally, by addressing the serious and relevant issue of missing and murdered indigenous women through the true story it’s based upon, we will give national platform to the #MMIW movement. We are working closely with Debra Magpie Earling and an elder cultural counsel to tell this story with integrity and respect. We intend to bring awareness by honoring Séliš, Ql̓ispé  people while giving a voice to missing and murdered Native women whose voices we must always listen to and never forget.

We believe this series will further heal relationships internationally through the arts via the transcendent and universal language of literature and film, and will do so from the beautiful canvas called Western Montana, ntxʷetkʷ.

Ensuring Authenticity

We honor the significance of cultural authenticity in all of its facets and strive to ensure
sensitivity and protection. Séliš dialogue is a necessary element of the production and
we wish to bring awareness to the Sélis language which is now critically endangered.

Staying True to Tribal Sovereignty

The series will be shot on location on the visually stunning Flathead Indian Reservation
in Montana, a site that is deeply connected to Séliš culture.

Donations

The donations help us make this Pilot episode a success! Your money will go to: 

• Secure professional cinematographer/gaffer 
• Deposit for A-list actors to be attached to project
• Secure 8K camera and equipment need for polish product and professional crew
• Correct Clothing for the 1940s and for the Salish Culture
• Working with the Salish Tribe on language, dialogue, locations and music
• Salish Language lessons for lead actor, Veyanna Webster
• Organizing an authentic Powwow event with Salish Community
• Organizing mentors for Native American youth to be on set

Donation Raffle Items

When you donate, your name will be entered in a raffle to win one of the following items:

•  First edition copy of Perma Red signed by the author Debra Magpie Earling.
• A scarf by the amazing fashion designer B. Yellowtail.
• And a VIP invite to our set and events.  

We will announce winners on this site and our social media sites.

The Impact

Perma Red brings hope to Indian Country.  

Social justice goals:

• Perma Red confronts the serious epidemic of missing and murdered Native women in the Americas.
• All women above-the-line on the crew and 50%+ Native American.
• The series mentors Native American youth in the film industry to continue telling their stories through the medium of film as a career.
• Protagonist is a Native American Woman and there a numerous supporting characters that are Native women.  
• Accurate portrayal of  content Séliš, Ql̓ispé, history and culture.  Rarely are Native women depicted in leading roles or hired as directors in film production.
• Low overall shooting budget and filmed in Montana, with internationally acclaimed crew and Native filmmakers, including casting director Rene Haynes (The Revenant and Twilight films).
• The film will contain Séliš, Ql̓ispé dialogue.  As of 2018 the Séliš,Ql̓ispé language has reached the  “critically endangered” status among Indigenous languages in the US.
• Perma Red is targeted to reach audiences in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South and Central America and Europe. The international market is calling for this type of female lead and the accurate portrayal of indigenous women in the Americas addressing social justice issues.

-Campaign written by Adrian Jawort with Contributions from Suzanne Shope, Maya Dittloff and Ivan MacDonald

Other Ways You Can Help

We value any help we can get! Sharing this campaign online, talking about it to friends and family, reaching out to us if your would like to be an extra or donate clothing, and supporting us with comments means so much to us! If you are interested in investing please contact us through our website: http://www.permaredfilm.com/contact/ 

 

 

Special thanks to Investors/Donors/Partners who have already supported the campaign: 

Montana Film Office: Big Sky Film Grant

From the Heart Productions (Fiscal Sponsor)

Salish Kootenai College

Polson Library

The Payne Family Native American Center

Wasabi Sushi Bar and Ginger Grill

MAPS Media Institute

Suzie Reahard

Robert Peccia

Susan and Tim Arneson

B. Yellowtail

Felicia Paul

Precious David

Bryan and Kassandra Murphy Brazill

Nacheyla, Sequoya, Sierra Dempsey and Terri Petersen

Sunni LaPlant, Sharmay Ewing and June Cree Medicine

Ronda Old Chief and Curtell Old Chief

Kieara Whitehawk, Mariah Maxwell-Hawley

Laurel and Bud Cheff

Marc and Kristy Carstens

Guthrie Weston Quist

Cecelia Coon and Lisa Coon

Paula Greenstein

Lindsey Jane Gardner

Heather Beeman Crombie

Myrna Chamberlain and John Feldt

Maura and Edwin Fields

Terri Peterson

Peter Koch

Martha Crites

Steve and Gail Johnson

Paul and Janice McCann

Dr. Janice Givler

Laura Snyder

Dori Gilels

Aimee McQuilkin

Elke Govertsen

Michelle Fields

Terry Stekly

Casey Stekly

Lane Brown

Nina Alviar 

Taylor White

Plonk, Missoula

Caelan Fisher