A new short film follows a young Arapaho skateboarder from Riverton. It's called Good Medicine and is a part of 365 Days of Love, a project exploring the concept of love around the nation and world. The film was produced by Sofia Vergara and explores different concepts of what good medicine could be to different generations and features different generational perspectives on what good medicine can be.
Film Director Jackson Tisi is from Jackson. He spent three days filming on the Wind River Reservation and found there is a blending of old and new for the younger generation.
"The youth are walking in two worlds," said Tisi. "You're able to have really rich ties to your heritage while also touching on what's new and relevant in pop culture. And enjoying the positive things that come with both.'
Tisi said he wanted to capture how, for a younger generation on Wind River Reservation, good medicine may be skateboarding while for some of the older generation, good medicine is ceremony and ancestral knowledge.
Coming to Wind River with fresh eyes, Tisi saw that skateboarding helps youth deal with issues that stem from generational trauma to financial limitations. But he still wanted the film to portray positive elements on the Wind River Reservation.
"At first it might sound like a clash of cultures, but it really makes a lot of sense. Because skateboarding is a really good release for a lot of the youth and its helping combat a lot of the problems," he said.
The film's title card includes the words Good Medicine written in Shoshone and Arapaho, the two indigenous languages spoken on the Wind River Reservation.
The film is available on Facebook and Vimeo.
https://vimeo.com/313355549">Good Medicine from https://vimeo.com/jacksontisi">Jackson Tisi on Vimeo
