drama, film festivals, Golden Rose Lebovich, Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux, Jazzy, Landon Schmidt, Lily Gladstone, Morrisa Maltz, movies, reviews, South Dakota, Syriah Fool Head Means, Tribeca Festival, Tribeca Film Festival
February 14, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Morrisa Maltz
Culture Representation: Taking place in Spearfish, South Dakota, the dramatic film “Jazzy” features a predominantly Native American cast of characters (with a few white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A 12-year-old girl experiences ups and downs in her relationship with her best friend.
Culture Audience: “Jazzy” will appeal mainly to people who are interested in stories about childhood friendships from a Native American perspective.
“Jazzy” is a beautifully filmed cinematic portrait of girlhood, friendships and learning to deal with life’s unexpected events. Some viewers might be bored by this drama’s meandering qualities, but the kid conversations are very authentic. Most movies made about Native Americans are usually about extreme trauma. And that’s why it’s refreshing that “Jazzy” doesn’t present Native Americans in that stereotypical context and instead shows Native Americans as everyday people living their lives.
Directed by Morrisa Maltz, “Jazzy” was written by Maltz, Lainey Bearkiller Shangreaux, Vanara Taing and Andrew Hajek. “Jazzy” had its world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival. This is the type of movie where children are the focus, but “Jazzy” doesn’t have the flaw of that too many movies have that make children unrealistically sound like they are adults. As such, many of the scenes in “Jazzy” show a lot of goofy and playful conversations. Don’t expect to see precocious kids having deep philosophical discussions.
“Jazzy” takes place in Spearfish, South Dakota, and shows the movie’s title character Jasmine, nicknamed Jazzy (played by Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux), from the ages of 6 to 12. “Jazzy” was filmed over the same six years that Bearkiller Shangreaux was ages 6 to 12. The majority of the story happens when Jazzy is 12. All the children in the movie portray characters who have the same first names.
Jazzy is a bright and sensitive child who is friendly but not interested in being the most popular girl in her school. She is content to hang out with a few friends at a time. Her best friend is Syriah (played by Syriah Fool Head Means), who is also a classmate of Jazzy’s.
Syriah is slightly more outgoing and more direct than Jazzy, who tends to be less assertive and more introspective than Syriah. It’s later revealed that Jazzy and Syriah are distant relatives and belong to the Lakota Nation tribe. Jazzy is kind and respectful to animals. At home, Jazzy has a brown pet rabbit named Pickles and a cat.
The parents (usually the mothers) of Jazzy and Syriah are heard but barely shown in the movie. Jazzy’s parents are married, while Syriah is an only child being raised by a single mother. Jazzy has an unnamed younger sister, who’s about seven years younger than Jazzy.
At 12 years old, Jazzy and Syriah like to do a lot of typical things that girls like to do: They try on makeup, they talk about boys and friends, and they dream about their future. By this age, Jazzy is aware that this is an ideal time in her childhood when she doesn’t have adult responsibilities and she doesn’t have to plan what she wants to do with her life after high school.
Jazzy and Syriah, who take the bus to school, are seen in various situations that show they have a safe and healthy working-class life. When Jazzy turns 7 years old, she has a small birthday party near the swimming pool at the Walnut Park Mobile Estates (trailer park) where she and her family live. The only guests at the party are Syriah and another female friend named Goldie (played by Golden Rose Lebovich).
Later, when Jazzy is 12 years old, the girls spend more time hanging out with boys instead of just other girls. A nerdy boy named Landon (played by Landon Schmidt), who lies about being an experienced dater, has a crush on Jazzy. The movie shows what happens when Landon asks Jazzy to be his girlfriend.
A girl named Grace (played by Grace Carriveau) becomes estranged from Jazzy, although the movie never really shows what the friendship was like between Grace and Jazzy. In a private conversation while Syriah is combing Jazzy’s hair, Syriah asks Jazzy why Jazzy stopped talking to Grace. Jazzy says, “I feel ignored by her, so I sent her an unfriending note.” Jazzy adds that she feels sad about cutting off her friendship with Grace in that way.
It won’t be long before Jazzy will know what it’s like to be “ghosted” by a friend. One day on a school bus, Jazzy finds out that Syriah is deliberately ignoring and refusing to talk to Jazzy. Jazzy makes several attempts to get Syriah to talk to her and say what’s wrong. Finally, Syriah blurts out to Jazzy: “I can’t talk to you. Our moms are fighting.”
Jazzy is emotionally hurt and shocked but gets even worse news when she finds out that Syriah and her mother are moving away for an unrelated reason. (None of this is spoiler information because it’s in the movie’s offcial synposis.) The scene where Syriah and her mother drive away might be considered the movie’s big tearjerking moment. It’s not sappy but it might resonate with anyone who’s ever seen a loved one drive away because of a relocation to a new home.
A turning point in “Jazzy” is when her grandmother Carla dies. Jazzy is at the funeral and the wake, where she sees certain relatives whom she hasn’t talked to in a long time. One of these family members is her compassionate aunt Tana (played by Lily Gladstone, one of the executive producers of “Jazzy”), who treats Jazzy with respect and listens to what Jazzy has to say. Gladstone has limited screen time in “Jazzy” (less than 15 minutes), but Tana is the only adult who is fully seen on screen javing a meaningful conversation with Jazzy.
“Jazzy” has vibrant cinematography by Hajek that wonderfully captures the natural beauty of South Dakota landscapes and the personalities of the story’s main characters. Equally vibrant are the naturalistic performances by the cast members. Bearkiller Shangreaux and Fool Head Means do wonderful jobs of depicting the friendship between Jazzy and Syriah. It’s easy to see that all of the movie’s child performers are playing versions of themselves and probably did a lot of improvising.
Native American culture is respected in “Jazzy,” and it’s not propped up as the main part of Jazzy’s identity. Native American culture is also used as a reason why people might inflict pain on Jazzy and other people with the same ethnic identity. Jazzy goes to a racially diverse school, but the movie doesn’t talk about racism. Jazzy and Syria are proud of their Lakota Nation heritage, but they admittedly are still learning the Lakota language because the girls’ main cultural references are American English.
Some viewers might think “Jazzy” is naïve for not having such a heavy topic as racism in a movie about a Native American girl. However, the point of the movie is to show that children of any race often don’t let the poison of racism (which is usually taught by adults) affect them or their friendships. With so many on-screen stories about children growing up too fast, “Jazzy” is an enjoyable alternative that celebrates the joys of kids being allowed to be kids.
Vertical released “Jazzy” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on February 7, 2025.