Native American writer-director Tai Leclaire joins IllumiNative’s Indigenous House launch at Sundance Film Festival
Native American writer-director Taietsarón:sere “Tai” Leclaire (Mohawk/Mi’kmaq) has several reasons to celebrate this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
For starters, he’ll be debuting his film Headdress In the short film program At the independent film festival, which runs Jan. 29 through Park City, Utah. Leclaire wrote, directed, and stars in the film. It examines the all too common theme of cultural appropriation through the humor of an LGBTQ Native.
He’ll also join a panel organized by Native-led social justice organization IllumiNative For its inaugural Indigenous House gathering space, to celebrate Native filmmakers at festival
“I was sort of always obsessed with this idea,” Leclaire tells In The Know by Yahoo about his film, “especially when this was happening a lot in terms of white folks wearing headdresses at music festivals.”
In Leclaire’s film, the main character (also named Tai) is stunned when he sees a non-Native person wearing a headdress. “He retreats into his mind where a roundtable of various versions of his identity meets to come up with the perfect thing to say,” reads the description on the film’s website.
Leclaire is specifically referring to the feathered war hats worn by Native men during traditional ceremonies. While the headdress is considered sacred among Native tribes, it has often been seen on runways and at festivals atop people who can’t claim tribal citizenship — considered an egregious form of disrespect toward Native people.
Find humor in your pain
Instead of getting angry — at least outwardly — Leclaire injects humor into a subject that is a painful one among Natives.
“There’s a reason Natives are so f***ing funny because we deal with a lot of shit,” he says.
Leclaire chose to focus his film in a space where he could mull over the best comebacks for this offending headdress-wearer — his own head.
“I wanted to take a deep dive with it and really just explore the nuances in the internal debate that a BIPOC or LGBTQ person has when it comes to something like this,” he says.
The film features a “roundtable of five separate identities,” Leclaire explains, with the two heroes of the story being Goth Tai and Professional Tai, his oldest and newest identities. There’s also Queer Tai, a character that Leclaire says is “still in development.”
As someone who grew up as the “goth gay kid on a Res,” the queer element, Leclaire says, “plays out in the way that it’s something that I’m still personally figuring out, even though I’m in my 30s and dealing with my sexuality and pretty much married to a man.”
Leclaire has a strong background of Native humor and comes to the film with that knowledge. Leclaire was a standup comedian as well as an actor and writer for sitcoms. Rutherford Fallsa TV series (2021-22), co-created Mike Schur, Ed Helms, and Sierra Teller Ornelas, (Navajo), that explores modern Native life.
“It’s truly the greatest job I’ve ever had,” Leclaire shares about the now canceled show. “And it was so wonderful to be in a room with other Native coworkers.”
“It was just such a good time to digest, discuss and come up with Native humor,” he adds. “I always say props to Sierra Teller Ornelas. She really brought the people together that needed to get together and really blew the door open for comedians like myself.”
IllumiNative’s inaugural Indigenous House at Sundance
At IllumiNative’s Indigenous House this weekend, Leclaire will reunite with other Natives in the television Film industry, including fellow Rutherford Falls writer Tazbah Chavez (Bishop Paiute/Nüümü/Diné/San Carlos Apache), who also writes for another landmark Native series, Reservation Dogs, whose cocreator Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Muscogee will also be present).
“We are beyond thrilled to open the doors to the Indigenous House for the very first time at Sundance Film Festival,” Crystal Echo HawkIllumiNative founder and executive Director, Jeremy said in a press release. “Storytelling is a powerful force for change, and we’ve seen firsthand how impactful Native representation is. Entertainment has been the main perpetrator of our erasure. But Native peoples have turned the tables and are breaking down walls and making amazing strides in representation. The Indigenous House celebrates Native filmmakers, artists, and creatives. beauty and strength of Native peoples.”
Leclaire’s panel on Jan. 22 will focus specifically on “Representing Joy.” Moderated by Adam Piron (Cáuigù/Kanienʼkehá꞉ka), director of the Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program, “the discussion will explore how filmmakers of color observe and celebrate the joys of existing within their communities and amplify it through their work.” Leclaire will join filmmakers Randall Park, Eugenio Derbez and Milisuthando Bongela on the panel.
Representation of Native Americans authentic
Leclaire addresses issues of Native identity as she speaks Headdress He said that he is working on other projects and wants to present all of them.
“The best way to represent Native ingenuity is to just do it authentically. And sometimes the authentic thing is very messy,” Leclaire says. “But I think it’s in that honesty that we can find the true portrayals of what it is to be a modern Indigenous person. It’s in the mess where all the fun is.”
And if, in the midst of all that mess, you can’t think of something clever or quippy to say to a cultural offender, Leclaire offers the advice of a true comedian:
“I think, when in doubt, just blast them on Twitter.”
(Photo courtesy Headdress.)
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