Sundance Interview 09: Sterlin Harjo (Barking Water)

[IONCINEMA.com is proud to feature a select group of new and veteran voices as the ones that are showcased and nurtured at the 25th edition of the Sundance Film Festival. This is part of collection of emailer interviews conducted prior to the festival – I would like to thank the filmmakers for their time and the hardworking publicists for making this possible.]

Sterlin Harjo

Eric Lavallee: Can you discuss the genesis of Barking Water – how did the initial idea come about or how did this become a story you wanted to tell?
Sterlin Harjo: The film is about an older couple that have been in a 40 year off and on relationship. The woman, Irene (Played by Casey Camp-Horinek) comes back to Frankie (Richard Ray Whitman) one last time, as Frankie lies on his deathbed, to break him from the hospital and get him home before he dies. I had had this idea for a while to make a film about a person that doesn’t want to die in the hospital. Almost as if this place that is supposed to help you really makes things worse. Then my Grandmother got real sick and I rode with her in the ambulance to the hospital… we all thought she was going to die. We stayed with her for a week at this hospital in Oklahoma City. She dictated a letter to my mother that said, basically, that she didn’t want to stay in the hospital if things got worse. She wanted to go home and live out her days and she said not to keep her alive with machines. She gave the letter to me and left me with the job of seeing it through if in fact she did get worse. Thankfully, her health turned around and she got better, but the experience definitely stuck with me after that. I’ve always been interested in older couples. I feel like they get the shaft when it comes to truthful depictions by Hollywood. I knew that their relationships had to be just as difficult as young people…they just knew how to make it work better from experience. So, I wanted to write a story about an older couple and the difficulties of their relationship but I didn’t have the context in which their relationship is explored. Then, one day I had the idea to merge the two stories. The hospital and the relationship story became Barking Water.

EL: Without giving away any spoilers – what is the significance behind the film’s title?
SH: They are going to a town in the film called Wewoka. Wewoka means Barking Waters in the Mvskoke language. 

EL: For your debut feature film you benefited from support in the form of grants, what are some of the challenges of financing a feature where the narrative doesn’t revolve around the POV of a white protagonist (as was the case in this past year’s Frozen River)?
SH: Well, it’s near impossible. With Four Sheets To The Wind I had this naive idea that I would take the script to Hollywood and money would be thrown at my feet. I had such a wonderful experience at the Sundance Labs and it felt like that momentum wasn’t going to stop, but once I did go to L.A. it became apparent that no one was interested in funding a film about Natives. If Natives are in blue jeans, forget it. If they are in buckskin, you got a chance. I had people telling me that they loved the script but that they couldn’t make it. So, my dreams of being the toast of the town quickly faded and we shifted gears. We eventually found money for the film in Oklahoma. From the beginning I knew that I would never get funding for Barking Water in LA and I was cool with that. I wanted to do the film at home with money from home and have total control creatively. I wasn’t even finished with the script when Dolphin Bay called Chad Burris (Producer) to see if we had any projects. Chad called me and I said “sure! I have this script that I’m working on.” Chad also got the Silverman fellowship from Sundance which helped out as well. It was really that easy, but only because of the Oklahoma connection.

EL: Can you elaborate on what kind of work went into the pre-production process (how long you’ve been working on this project prior to pre-production and what specifically you did to prepare, and were there specific people involved in this process that are worth signaling out?
SH: The crew that I worked with were people that I knew and had worked with before. Frederick Schroeder, the cinematographer, and I talked about the approach to shooting it early on. We watched a lot of road movies. We are both big fans of Two-Lane Blacktop and we wore the dvd out. Fred and I also did most of the location scouting together. I had a general idea of where I wanted to shoot the film but he came to town early on and we went on a road trip to pinpoint the locations. I have people that read my scripts. The usual suspects– Bird Runningwater, Taika Waititi, and Spring Houghton. I send them to friends and get feedback and make changes. When we got close to shooting we gave the script to more people for feedback. Though, the part of pre-production that had the most impact was rehearsals with Richard and Casey, the two leads. We really worked through as much of the script as we could. A lot of changes took place at that time. 

EL: Casting for the film: Richard had a part role in Four Sheets… apart from demographics (age) what made you think of him for the co-lead?
SH: Richard is the coolest guy you’ll ever meet. He’s like the Indian Johnny Cash. He’s got an awesome voice, but the best quality that he has is his life experience. He has lead an enormous life as an artist. With so much life experience he is able to pull from everything to make his performance real.

EL: What kind of aesthetic decisions did you and Frederick make prior to shooting? Did you guys watch road movies to get an idea of how to film within a car?
SH: Yeah, like I said we watched Two-Lane Blacktop a lot. We watched other road movies as well. The biggest decisions that we made were to shoot everything. Fred was always ready to turn the camera on and start shooting. I wanted to try and capture the freedom of the road. If the actors wanted to change something it was encouraged and if I wanted to make up a scene or change a scene I did it. Fred was always ready to go.

EL: If you could name just one – what stands out as your most favorite experience you had during filming?
SH: My favorite moment would have to be when we were shooting on Ponca tribal land in White Eagle. White Eagle is an area outside of Ponca City, Oklahoma. The Ponca people have a lot of environmental issues going on right now. Casey is Ponca and first and foremost she is an environmental activist. She works to bring attention to the environmental injustices that her people face. We were shooting there and her family and other community members invited us to a feast. With all that they face they took the time out to feed me and my crew. We ate a traditional meal and talked with them about some of the issues they face. We also just hung out. There was a storm that knocked the power out so people pulled their cars up to the windows and shined their headlights in. So, we were eating in partial darkness. Richard asked Casey to tell us about the mural that was on the wall in the community building we were eating in. Casey got up and went through the mural that told the history of the Ponca people. It told of them in their homelands in southern South Dakota and northern Nebraska. It told of how the United States Government forcibly removed them from their lands to what is now Oklahoma. At the climax of this story the lights flashed back on and as Casey finished the part about the trail of tears and being forced away from home lighting struck and the lights when back out. It sent chills up your spine. That was my favorite part. Not just in White Eagle but everywhere we went– we tried to include the communities where we filmed. This is important to me. I feel like the land influences the story and vice versa.

EL: Anatomy of a scene: What was the most difficult sequence to film during production?
SH: The hardest was a cop chase scene that isn’t in the film. It just didn’t fit tonally. It became a different film. I regret it thought because we had a brilliant performance from Joseph Gomez as the cop. He is a wonderful actor from Tulsa. I hope to work with him again.

EL: Audiences will sense that this is also a Valentine’s card to Oklahoma. For viewers who’ve never been this part of the U.S: what are you hoping they part with in terms of the people, the land, the setting?
SH: Well, in terms of land its beautiful. It’s a very unique place due to the history and also how it exists today. People don’t think of it like this because it is lumped into the south but it’s a very diverse place as well.

Sterlin Harjo‘s Barking Water receives its world premiere at the 25th edition of the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday. January 17th at 2:15 p.m. in the Racquet Club at Park City. 

Other screenings to follow include:

Sun. Jan 18 noon – Screening Room, Sundance Resort
Wed. Jan 21 6:15 p.m. – Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City
Thu. Jan 22 2:30 p.m. – Library Center Theatre, Park City
Sat. Jan 24 6:00 p.m. – Tower Theatre, SLC