The hit Netflix movie Rez Ball is inspired by a true story, and the origins of the basketball movie is just as engaging as the film itself. Rez Ball Became very popular shortly after it was released, and it could even make a case for being one of the best movies on Netflix. A big reason it has gained so much popularity is because it paints a serious and honest picture of life on a reservation. That picture makes sense, granted Rez Ball is written by one of the creators of Reservation dogswhich was also inspired by Native American tribes.
Rez Ball Follows the Chuska Warriors, a high school basketball team made up of Navajo players and coaches. After tragedy strikes their star player, Jimmy Holiday (Kauchani Bratt) takes over the team and has to help them live up to their own expectations and those of the community they are part of. Rez Ball is a heartbreaking, and simultaneously heartfelt, story, and the true story it’s inspired by is just as interesting. Although it is inspired by real events and people, however, Rez Ball is not technically a true story.
Rez Ball is partially inspired by the Chinle High School Wildcats
Although it follows the Chuska Warriors in New Mexico, Rez Ball is actually inspired by the Chinle High School Wildcats from Arizona. The Wildcats were the subject of Michael Powell’s 2019 book “Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation,” which also served as the inspiration for the movie. Canyon Dreams is a journalistic account of a season played by the Wildcats that Powell personally participated in, and it chronicles the ups and downs of the team, the hopes and dreams of the players, and the community’s support for the high school. Although it did inspire Rez Ball, Canyon Dreams was not the source material of the movie.
How director Sidney Freeland’s own experience inspired Rez Ball
Sterling Harjo, a co-writer of Rez Balltold Time That he did not use Canyon Dreams As a reference or even read it; He instead used director Sidney Freeland’s experiences playing basketball while growing up on a Navajo reservation.
“It was from her community and she played basketball there. It was really about just telling a real story that we both connected to and felt authentic and real to us.”
Freeland said basketball is an integral part of life for the Navajo community she’s a part of because they don’t have college or professional teams.. Freeland said, “What you have is high school sports, and a lot of that has fallen on basketball because that’s what many indigenous communities have excelled at..” To illustrate just how intense the Navajo Nation was about basketball when Freeland was playing, she recounts an anecdote about being escorted to a game by police officers because of intertribal rivalries.
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Other parts of Freeland’s experience playing basketball also made their way in Rez Ball. She mentioned that teams would talk trash to each other in their native languages and not understand each other, and a similar thing happens with the Navajo language in the film, when the team starts calling plays in Navajo. Additionally, Harjo mentioned why they decided to make the team’s coach, Heather Hobbs, a woman.
“Both Sydney and I come from matriarchal communities. You get disciplined by the women, and you have strong women to look up to whether you’re a woman or a young man or whatever.”
As Harjo explained, the Warriors were coached by Heather to represent how the Navajo community has strong female role models.. Freeland also mentioned that the girls’ basketball teams are often just as good, or better, than the boys’ teams – something that was on display in the scrimmage early in Rez Ball.
Are the Rez Ball characters based on real people?
Rez Ball is inspired by two different true accounts – both Sidney Freeland’s own experiences and Canyon Dreams – But the story is original. Any of the letters in Rez Ball They are real people, but they experience many of the triumphs and tragedies that Navajo and Native American people face in real life.. In this way, the letters of Rez Ball are founded in reality, although the movie cannot be considered one of the best true stories on Netflix. Additionally, the Chuska Warriors are a real high school team in New Mexico, and some of their seasons may have played out similar to the one shown in Rez Ball.
The film didn’t need to be a completely historical account, because Rez Ball still gets to the truth of its central issues.
Even though Rez Ball is not a fully historical account of a basketball season for a Navajo team, it doesn’t need to be. The experiences that Harjo and Freeland have built on their film are largely universal, and not just for Native American people. Rez Ball is a story about working through tragedy and grief, learning to work as a team, and the realities of life on a reservation. The film did not need to be a completely historical account, because Rez Ball Still gets to the truth of its central issues.
Source: Time