The success of Scottish director, Steven Lewis Simpson’s adaptation of best-selling novel, Neither Wolf Nor Dog, defies logic—Hollywood logic that is. It was audience-financed with 18 shoot days, a tiny crew, a 95-year-old star and a self-distributed release that started in small towns and is outperforming Hollywood blockbusters in numerous multiplexes.
The film “Neither Wolf nor Dog” is being shown in Winner at the Pix theater. The film opened at the Pix on July 27 and will run until Aug. 2
It has a higher audience score on Rotten Tomatoes than any big Hollywood movie out at the moment; 4.7/5 – 95%. The film has had a longer theatrical run than any other US film released in the past decade and has become the most successful non-Hollywood Native American film in years.
Shot on Pine Ridge, the film has steadily rolled out through the nation, remarkably passing the 150th theater mark within only 15% of the country. South Dakota has proportionally had the most theaters per-capita – an equivalence of 5,185 theaters nationally.
Oklahoma Film Critics Society’s Louis Fowler named Neither Wolf Nor Dog the number one film of 2017. The film was extended for three weeks in Spearfish due to demand and was the top performing film its first week, beating five big Hollywood movies including the ranking top 3 in the US.
Based on the best-selling Native American novel by Kent Nerburn, Neither Wolf Nor Dog takes audiences on a deeply moving road trip through contemporary and historical Lakota life and culture. Its humor is wry and pulls no punches, introducing deep characters and poignant vignettes that challenge the viewer to see the world a bit differently.
South Dakotan Dave Bald Eagle stars in the film. He was born in Cherry Creek in 1919 and around 10 years later participated in Deadwood’s Days of ‘76 parade for the first time. He attended the majority of them until he passed away last year aged 97. For a time, his obituary was the most-read feature in the world on the BBC. NPR’s All Things Considered team debated whether Bald Eagle was “the world’s most interesting man.”
Dave was a veteran and was left for dead on D-Day. The other star Christopher Sweeney is also a prominent veteran and a recipient of the Silver Star when a Marine in combat in the Gulf War. The cast is filled with amazing Native actors, Richard Ray Whitman, Roseanne Supernault, Tatanka Means and the wonderful Zahn McClarnon, who most recently has been a star of the TV series Westworld. Local cast from Pine Ridge includes Harlen Standing Bear Sr, Yellow Pny Pettibone and Dawn Little Sky (whose husband was the famous Native actor, Eddie Little Sky).
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