Local artist premieres first film, relating Native story

Aug. 31—A Tahlequah resident launched a short film with Native American roots and ties to Cherokee County Aug. 28.

Christopher Coursey is the writer, director, and producer of his first short film, "The River Woe." He said the drama/ tragedy, which is 13 minutes long, shows the life of a Native American who loses his job and is used to show the audience how easy it is to lose everything.

While the film might not be a true story, he said, it is real life for some people, told from a Native American's perspective.

"I want to see more of that. You don't always have to tell a traditional story or anything. It can be just an original story that involves all Native American stuff," said Coursey.

The film's first premiere took place at Riverbend by the Bridge on Aug. 28. Coursey said he felt kind of emotional at the debut, where he received comments about the somber feelings the film conjures up.

"[The premiere] was awesome. It was somewhat emotional. I mean, it was just a small project, but for me, it's my first one, and it wasn't something just thrown together. It was a really great effort from every single person involved," said Coursey.

It was filmed in Tahlequah and Stilwell, and Coursey believes the locations will draw more interest to the area.

"There's a lot going on in Oklahoma, with all the incentives and the tax breaks Oklahoma gives, but I've noticed a lot of the [film] work is all in Tulsa or mainly in the Oklahoma City area. I live here in Tahlequah, so I wanted to pull a Kevin Costner moment: 'Build it and the people will come,'" said Coursey.

Coursey is creating his own film production office and team, and is trying to meet people to grow his company.

He has been involved with two other major movies, including "Cherokee Word for Water" and "Wildfire: The Legend of the Cherokee Ghost Horse." Having an affiliation with these films is the reason Coursey wanted to write, direct and create his own independent films. He's considered himself an artist his entire life, and he believes making films is just another creative outlet for him.

Some of Coursey's artwork includes modern abstract sculptures and paintings with Native American influences. Not all of his work has Native influences, but he said most of it does, because of the opportunities he is given to share new Native perspectives.

"I don't read tons of books, but I've read a lot of classics, and one of them that always stuck out to me is like Mark Twain and stuff like that — Americana. In this case, it's Native Americana. Just real stuff and modern stuff. I like to do period stuff as well,but just real life but with brown people — a brown perspective," said Coursey.

"The River Woe" has been submitted to three different film festivals. Coursey said he will not stream or post the film until after the competitions are finished, as one of the festival stipulations is that he cannot stream the film until after then.

Coursey said he and his team are about to start the pre-production of his next film, which has a to be determined date.