{"id":25728,"date":"2024-09-12T19:27:41","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T19:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/advance-screening-of-rez-ball-to-take-place-at-allen-theatres\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:25:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:25:22","slug":"advance-screening-of-rez-ball-to-take-place-at-allen-theatres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/advance-screening-of-rez-ball-to-take-place-at-allen-theatres\/","title":{"rendered":"Advance screening of \u2018Rez Ball\u2019 to take place at Allen Theatres"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=803d9cb2-6d1f-5176-93f9-1ae5183d7e5e&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" alt=\"Kauchani Bratt as Jimmy Holiday and Kusem Goodwind as Nataanii Jackson in \u201cRez Ball,\u201d premiering on Netflix, Friday, Sept. 27. (Netflix)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Kauchani Bratt as Jimmy Holiday and Kusem Goodwind as Nataanii Jackson in \u201cRez Ball,\u201d premiering on Netflix, Friday, Sept. 27. (Netflix)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>FARMINGTON \u2013 More than a dozen theaters across the country, including the Animas 10 Theatres in Farmington, will host special screenings Friday night of the new motion picture \u201cRez Ball\u201d one week ahead of its scheduled international Netflix release.<\/p>\n<p>The film follows a Native American basketball team working together to win a state championship after losing their star player. It will be set in the fictional community of Chuska.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/plUsLi3elDg\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cRez Ball,\u201d directed by Gallup native Sydney Freeland and featuring a cast which consists of many Native Americans actors, was shot in locations including Shiprock, Belen, Los Lunas, Estancia, Santa Fe, Rio Rancho and permitted filming spots on the Navajo Nation Reservation.<\/p>\n<p>The film tells the story of the fictional Chuska Warriors, a Native American high school basketball team competing for the state championship title but lose their star player.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, the film will premiere in locations like New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., and in Farmington as well as Flagstaff, Window Rock, Albuquerque and Denver.<\/p>\n<p>Freeland cowrote the screenplay with Sterlin Harjo, based on the nonfiction sports novel \u201cCanyon Dreams,\u201d by N<em id=\"emphasis-be5b103597174148e76e10e6a5bb0346\">ew York Times <\/em>journalist Michael Powell. NBA star LeBron James serves as a producer. The film is set to feature an ensemble cast, including Jessica Matten, Julia Jones, Amber Midthunder and Kiowa Gordon.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=c2facae8-2315-505c-9ce4-7e7ab06ed630&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1502\" alt=\"\u201cRez Ball\u201d director Sydney Freeland, center, meets with producer Mauricio Mot and Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren on Feb. 22, 2023. (Courtesy Navajo Nation President's Office)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">\u201cRez Ball\u201d director Sydney Freeland, center, meets with producer Mauricio Mot and Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren on Feb. 22, 2023. (Courtesy Navajo Nation President's Office)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>The film premiered this month at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiewire.com\/criticism\/movies\/rez-ball-review-netflix-1235046499\/\" id=\"link-415b4185e3b160550d16fb3a8202c681\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Toronto International Film Festival<\/a> to mostly positive reviews.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaintaining a feel-good tone without becoming saccharine, \u201cRez Ball\u201d is a charmer with enough of an edge to keep viewers on their toes,\u201d wrote Jourdain Searles of <em id=\"emphasis-3eae757426fd929f4a13db4ef9877d9f\">IndieWire.com<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s the kind of film that makes one optimistic about the future, even if only for the length of a game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The cast includes a variety of familiar faces to television and film viewers, including Jessica Matten, who appeared in the television show \u201cDark Winds\u201d as well as Julia Jones (\u201cThe Mandalorian\u201d). In addition, there are several actors who will be making their film debut with \u201cRez Ball.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yR-EQtOv_Lg\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cOur 10 players, for the most part, had never set foot on a film set before this,\u201d Freeland said in an interview with <em id=\"emphasis-04b746f5b5399b9a41dadb10467dacde\">Native Viewpoint<\/em>. \u201cThese kids come from the places we\u2019re trying to portray. A lot of it was just trying to give them permission to be themselves. And that manifested in the form of drama, but also comedy and humor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are a number of local entities to the film that go beyond filming location and hometowns of the cast and crew.<\/p>\n<p>Black Streak Apparel, owned and operated by Roddell Denetso of Shiprock, was tabbed to create the jerseys worn by actors in gametime scenes of the film.<\/p>\n<p>The Chieftain Pit, located at Shiprock High School, was used as a shooting location for game scenes in the film.<\/p>\n<p>Times for the \u201cRez Ball\u201d screening at the Animas 10 Theatre have not yet been set. Those schedules will be updated early next week and will be available online at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allentheatresinc.com\/\" id=\"link-386c88154c2ab67dee6a7c01ff2839c9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">allentheatresinc.com<\/a> and on the Allen Theatres app.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Basketball-themed film will play at select theaters across America on Friday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,799,1047,28,642,1107,1655,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-farmington","tag-film","tag-headlines","tag-high-school-sports","tag-movies","tag-navajo-nation","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79068,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25728\/revisions\/79068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25728"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}