Taking place over a season in the life of basketball players from a Native American reservation, ‘Rez Ball’ is the story of a team of underdogs fighting for a state championship.
Filmed on Navajo Nation and featuring a predominantly Native cast and crew, including director and co-writer Sydney Freeland, the story showcases the real phenomenon of how this beloved game unites Native youth and their communities across the country.
The series — currently streaming on Netflix — was directed by Freeland (“Drunktown’s Finest”), who co-wrote the script with Sterlin Harjo (“Reservation Dogs“) and was produced by hoops icon LeBron James.
According to Freeland:
You have these small arenas, but they’re just packed with people. Where we were, we don’t have professional teams. We don’t have college teams. A lot of that falls on high school; where a lot of these Native teams have had the most success is the high school level. So you get this huge turnout and this rabid fan base. So for us, it was like, ‘Oh, this is West Texas high school football. This is Friday Night Lights, but it is from an Indigenous perspective.’
“Rez Ball” is inspired by the book “Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Reservation” by Michael Powell and the New York Times articles that laid its foundation.
Check out the trailer below.
