About the event

On The Road [3/3] - Smoke Signals (1998) dir. Chris Eyre

Arnold rescued Thomas from a fire when he was a child. Thomas thinks of Arnold as a hero, while Arnold's son Victor resents his father's alcoholism, violence and abandonment of his family. When Victor hears Arnold has died, Thomas offers him funding for the trip to get Arnold's remains, but only if Thomas can also go with him.

Smoke Signals distinguishes itself as a full-length feature film written, directed, co-produced, and acted (in all major roles) by Native Americans based loosely on Sherman Alexie’s short novel entitled The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1994). By all measures it is a landmark film that, in Alexie’s words, “challenges the cinematic history of Indians” by bringing new Indian characters to the screen who, as Alexie says, are not the silent, stoic types we’re used to, nor are they depressed victims. In real life, Alexie tells us, “Indians are the most joyous people in the world”.