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LAKOTA GIRLS

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This is quite a wonderful drama that weaves in an intercultural love story based on a true story of the director's great-grandmother. The beautiful scenery shot in the Black Hills and the Pine Ridge Reservation are stunning. The actors are quite believable and include many Lakota actors appearing in a film for the first time. The flute music by the Lakota flutist is stunning as is the original score by William Cox. This first-time filmmaker has created a lovely tale that reveals the history of her family and the complicated relationships created by the intercultural marriage of her ancestor. It's not perfect but it is certainly an admirable effort and quite worthy of play at the KIDS FIRST! Film Festival. I recommend it for ages 8 to 18. Julie S., KIDS FIRST! Juror

This is a historical drama about Mato Win, an eight-year-old Native American girl who lives at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. She is sent to live with a white family at a horse ranch in the Black Hills. She stays with Clara, an eight-year-old white girl and her family, but Mato Win is determined to get back to the reservation. She runs away to the mountainous forest, but is found. Mato Win is afraid she will be kept from her parents and does not trust Clara's older brother Cavan. Mato Win questions Clara about an old photo of two Indian men in her home. Clara tells the story of her great-great grandma, Emylon, who rode the train from Indiana to teach there, a hundred years ago. The girls discover they have more in common than they knew.