Catherine Weldon (Jessica Chastian) , a portrait painter from 1890s Brooklyn, travels to Dakota to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull (Michael Greyeyes) and becomes embroiled in the Lakota peoples' struggle over the rights to their land. And while she is suffering harassment and violence by the white inhabitants and confronting the US cavalry officers : Groves (Sam Rockwell) , James McLaughlin (Ciarán Hinds) and General Crook (Bill Camp). There she defies the Western times !.
It is a historical drama directed by British filmmaker Susanna White (Masters of Sex) and has a cast headed by Jessica Chastain. The film is inspired by real events that are collected in Elleen Pollack's novel: ¨Woman walking ahead: In search of Catherines Weldon and Sitting Bull¨ published in 2002. The film contains small brushstrokes that do not correspond to reality. The film suggests that Caroline and Sitting Bull did not know each other prior to his arrival at Standing Rock, which is inaccurate, but they began to meet around 1888, after he was in Washington, discussing Dakota land prices. Also, his death is not historically accurate. The motion picture displays a colorful cinematography by Mike Eley and sensitive score by George Fenton , being competently directed by Susanna White.
Based on Caroline Weldon (1844 - 1921) life , she was a Swiss-American artist and activist with the National Indian Defense Association. Weldon became a confidante and the personal secretary to the Lakota Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull during the time when Plains Indians had adopted the Ghost Dance movement. Weldon became committed to the cause of Native Americans. Upon her mother's death in 1887, she inherited some money which gave her the means to pursue her interests freely, including her interest in art. Sometime thereafter, she changed her name to Caroline Weldon, presumably to allow her to put her past behind her, although her exact reasons for this action remain unknown. In the summer of 1889, Caroline Weldon traveled to Dakota Territory to fulfill her dream of living among the Sioux. She joined the National Indian Defense Association (NIDA), headed by Dr. Thomas Bland and his wife Cora Bland. Weldon began to aid the Sioux in their struggle to fight the US government's attempt via the Dawes Act to expropriate vast portions of the Great Sioux Reservation for the purpose of opening some up for white settlement and with the intent of rendering the creations of the two new states of North Dakota and South Dakota economically viable. Weldon befriended Sitting Bull, leader of the traditionalist faction among the Sioux, and she acted as his secretary, interpreter, and advocate. She painted four portraits of Sitting Bull, two of which are known to have survived. One is now held by the North Dakota Historical Society in Bismarck, North Dakota, and the other at the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas. After she had moved with her young son Christie to live at Sitting Bull's compound on the Grand River at Standing Rock Indian Reservation, her confrontations and open defiance of Indian Agent James McLaughlin engendered enmity. McLaughlin initiated a smear campaign, resulting in her being reviled by much of the white community and vilified in the national press. When the Ghost Dance Movement swept through the Indian Reservations of the West in the summer of 1890, she denounced the movement. Weldon warned Sitting Bull that the Ghost Dance movement would give the government a pretext to harm him and to summon the military for intervention which would destroy the Sioux Nation. Sitting Bull turned against her and, upon her son falling ill in November, she decided to leave. The subsequent events of Sitting Bull's murder on December 15, 1890, and the Wounded Knee massacre on December 29, 1890, added to her sense of futility and failure.
It is a historical drama directed by British filmmaker Susanna White (Masters of Sex) and has a cast headed by Jessica Chastain. The film is inspired by real events that are collected in Elleen Pollack's novel: ¨Woman walking ahead: In search of Catherines Weldon and Sitting Bull¨ published in 2002. The film contains small brushstrokes that do not correspond to reality. The film suggests that Caroline and Sitting Bull did not know each other prior to his arrival at Standing Rock, which is inaccurate, but they began to meet around 1888, after he was in Washington, discussing Dakota land prices. Also, his death is not historically accurate. The motion picture displays a colorful cinematography by Mike Eley and sensitive score by George Fenton , being competently directed by Susanna White.
Based on Caroline Weldon (1844 - 1921) life , she was a Swiss-American artist and activist with the National Indian Defense Association. Weldon became a confidante and the personal secretary to the Lakota Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull during the time when Plains Indians had adopted the Ghost Dance movement. Weldon became committed to the cause of Native Americans. Upon her mother's death in 1887, she inherited some money which gave her the means to pursue her interests freely, including her interest in art. Sometime thereafter, she changed her name to Caroline Weldon, presumably to allow her to put her past behind her, although her exact reasons for this action remain unknown. In the summer of 1889, Caroline Weldon traveled to Dakota Territory to fulfill her dream of living among the Sioux. She joined the National Indian Defense Association (NIDA), headed by Dr. Thomas Bland and his wife Cora Bland. Weldon began to aid the Sioux in their struggle to fight the US government's attempt via the Dawes Act to expropriate vast portions of the Great Sioux Reservation for the purpose of opening some up for white settlement and with the intent of rendering the creations of the two new states of North Dakota and South Dakota economically viable. Weldon befriended Sitting Bull, leader of the traditionalist faction among the Sioux, and she acted as his secretary, interpreter, and advocate. She painted four portraits of Sitting Bull, two of which are known to have survived. One is now held by the North Dakota Historical Society in Bismarck, North Dakota, and the other at the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas. After she had moved with her young son Christie to live at Sitting Bull's compound on the Grand River at Standing Rock Indian Reservation, her confrontations and open defiance of Indian Agent James McLaughlin engendered enmity. McLaughlin initiated a smear campaign, resulting in her being reviled by much of the white community and vilified in the national press. When the Ghost Dance Movement swept through the Indian Reservations of the West in the summer of 1890, she denounced the movement. Weldon warned Sitting Bull that the Ghost Dance movement would give the government a pretext to harm him and to summon the military for intervention which would destroy the Sioux Nation. Sitting Bull turned against her and, upon her son falling ill in November, she decided to leave. The subsequent events of Sitting Bull's murder on December 15, 1890, and the Wounded Knee massacre on December 29, 1890, added to her sense of futility and failure.