Actors Paulina Alexis , D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai , and the legendary Wes Studi film a scene for the serieswhere I could get a big waffle and a hot coffee any day of the week. But since appearing on FX’s Peabody Award–winning seriesit’s become a bit of a pilgrimage spot. In one memorable scene, actors Ethan Hawke and Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs sit across from each other at a table a few feet from where I was dining.
Most significant, the series sparked a Native filmmaking boom, centered in Tulsa. Fittingly, the city sits at the meeting point of three nations—Cherokee, Muscogee, and Osage. The show’s three seasons showcase Oklahoma’s varied landscapes, from the green Ozark hills and the rivers that flow throughout the Cherokee Nation’s 7,000 square miles, to the prairies in the central region, to the Great Salt Plains in the north and the mesas near the panhandle.
Cherokee Film maintains an online database of Native talent and crew with more than 2,000 verified listings. Among them is local Cherokee filmmaker Jeremy Charles, who operates Pursuit Films, a production services provider for local shoots and for tribes across the continent.The Cherokee Film studio offers motion capture, mixed reality, and 3D capabilities. “There is no technology like this in the region, much less available to Native filmmakers,” Charles says.