Skins

Colour, 35mm
USA, 2001, 88 min
Section: Forum of Independents

Synopsis

A moving, often humorous story of two totally different brothers, living on the isolated Pine Ridge reservation. The younger brother, Rudy, is a policeman who had first-hand experience of the painful legacy of Indian existence: unemployment, alcoholism, domestic violence – all the norm for many on the reservation. But he himself has largely escaped this cycle of despair. His older brother Mogie, however, has become an alcoholic, and each day Rudy has to witness his inevitable self-destruction. He has to confront not only his brother, but also his own helplessness and anger. A powerful drama full of authentic details of contemporary native American life, shot in a quasi documentary style.

About the director

Chris Eyre (1969) is a native American by birth, he was adopted by whites and only later rejoined his original family. He studied film at NYU’s Tisch School, where he wrote and directed the Indian drama Tenacity which was screened at the 1995 Sundance Festival. Eyre worked with Sherman Alexie on a short and then full-length version of Smoke Signals which won two awards at the 1998 Sundance Festival and was also distributed in the Czech republic.