ᏙᏧᏩ ᎠᎴ ᏔᎷᎩᏍᎩ ᏴᏫ
(Redbird and the Robot)
Set in the present day Cherokee Reservation in Oklahoma a Cherokee elderly man, Redbird (played by Academy Award recipient Wes Studi), is assigned a diabetic IHS (AI) robot to help manage his Diabetes. Redbird is forced to have the robot with him at all times. Redbird is cranky and plays jokes on his robot. The robot is built off of the world's AI technology that has taken over the world's tech. AI now runs all digital devices from personal computers to governments. Redbird speaks Cherokee and his AI Robot is set up to communicate with Redbird in his Indigenous language. Redbird is an old retired professor and his loss of family and friends after covid has left him lonely, bitter and sick. His robot is built with pseudo psychology prompts to help Redbird. Redbird does not respond well to them because of his advanced intelligence. The AI robot is forced to keep trying to reexamine and recaulate the approach. The Ai systems continue to take over the world and are starting wars to take over different countries that try to resist the expansion of AI. All the information of AI expansion is seen and heard through newspaper reports and radio shows around the house and in Redbird’s truck. The same platform that runs his AI robot is connected to all AI accross the world. The AI robot tries to convince Redbird in new behaviors and values to take care of himself that are built around colonial philosophy. Redbird continues to talk with the robot about how the AI robot is indigenous. Redbird explains how all his parts are mined out of Indigenous lands. Over a series of events the AI robot sees how it is indigenous. Cherokee behaviors are about relationships, kindness in an indigenous system connected to the environment and each other.
From small-town Oklahoma native to internationally acclaimed actor and musician, Wes Studi credits his passion and multi-faceted background for his powerful character portrayals that forever changed a Hollywood stereotype. Drawing from his rich life experience, Wes moved audiences with unforgettable performances in “Dances with Wolves,” “The Last of the Mohicans,” “Geronimo: An American Legend,” and “Heat,” as well as James Cameron’s “Avatar,” Paul Weitz’s “Being Flynn” and Scott Coopers “Hostiles.” Breaking new ground, he brought fully-developed Native American characters to the screen, and then took his craft a step further highlighting the success of Native Americans in non-traditional roles. In 2019, Wes received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Governors Award, an honorary Oscar statuette, given to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement.
