For almost a century, the Academy Awards has been honoring animated short films. Among this year’s qualifying contenders are two thought-provoking films written and directed by TAG members.
Pow!
Written and directed by Joey Clift
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What was the inspiration for Pow!?
I’m an enrolled citizen of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe of Washington State, and Pow! is loosely inspired by my experiences being dragged by Mom to powwows on the Tulalip Reservation when I was a kid. I made the film to show that loving video games and loving your culture don’t have to be mutually exclusive, to honor our elders’ lifetime of activism that allows us to gather at places like powwows, and to show that a Native kid from the rez can be as funny as Bart Simpson.
What was the greatest challenge in making this short?
I would be disingenuous if I didn’t say that one of the biggest challenges to making Pow! was getting the funding! I’ve wanted to make this film for a few years, but animation is an expensive process. In 2024 I was fortunate to receive support from the grantmaking fund Pop Culture Collaborative, and that allowed me to put together a great, largely Indigenous team to make Pow! the way I wanted to make it.
Additionally, one of the blessings and curses of independent film is—since it’s largely a labor of love—you can find yourself investing in a lot of good but difficult-to-pull-off ideas. Early in the production, our Character Designer, a fantastic Annie Award-winning artist and enrolled citizen of the Cherokee tribe, Morgan Thompson, suggested we animate a section of the film as ledger art. Ledger art is a Plains Native art style originated in the 1800s. When the United States army forcibly relocated Native folks onto reservations, they left behind their military ledgers and notebooks. For the Native folks, those ledgers were the only paper they had. They created beautiful works drawn on top of the leftover military notes, using art in a very real way to heal their trauma.
Ledger art has pretty much never been seen before in American animation. To do it right, I received permission from the National Archives and several museums to include documents and copies of treaties between tribes and the United States government in that sequence. Additionally, I received permission from a documentary crew to include actual audio from the Dakota Access Pipeline protests of 2016 in the film. This took months to source and receive the correct permissions, but I’m so proud that we were able to include that sequence in the film.
What did you learn during the process of making this short?
Most non-Native folks know next to nothing about Native culture, and when making Pow! I was a little worried that audiences wouldn’t understand what the film was trying to say. At this point I’ve screened Pow! at about 100 film festivals around the world, for audiences everywhere from New Zealand to New York City. Something that’s been so cool about touring Pow! is that no matter if it’s screening in a small Indian reservation in the middle of nowhere, or at some of the biggest film festivals in the world, the laughs and emotional hits are in all of the same places. It’s been so cool to see that, though this film is packed to the brim with Native-specific jokes and references, its appeal is pretty universal.
What does having your short qualify for the Oscars mean to you?
Growing up, the only Native stories I saw on television and film were broad stereotypes like Disney’s Pocahontas or Apache Chief in the old Super Friends cartoons. Though I’m sure the people behind those projects meant well, it’s palpable that they didn’t feature many Native folks in front of, or behind, the camera. With Pow! I wanted to create the sort of contemporary, authentic, and funny Native story that I wish I had when I was a kid.
This is one of the first times that an animated short film, centering a contemporary Native American family and with a largely Indigenous team behind it, has screened at major film festivals alongside some of the biggest names in animation. I know you’re not supposed to spend your career trying to win trophies, but to have this extremely Native story competing for major awards like the Oscars is so validating. I hope it’s a signal to the industry that people want to see Native stories and that our films deserve to be on the biggest stages this industry has to offer. I also hope that a Native story receiving this level of acclaim will help show Native kids everywhere that they matter, and that their perspective deserves to be celebrated too.
ForeverGreen
Written and directed by Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears
Learn more about the film
Watch the trailer
What was the inspiration for ForeverGreen?
Forevergreen is an allegory about undeserved grace. It’s a story of hope, redemption, and love for one’s enemies in a world that often demands justice instead. As Christians, we’ve always been drawn to stories that reflect our faith in Jesus through grace and forgiveness. The film draws inspiration from the biblical tale of the Prodigal Son and from our own faith journeys. We wanted to tell a story that could resonate universally, set in the beauty of nature that’s accessible to anyone, regardless of belief or background.
What was the greatest challenge in making this short?
It was an immense challenge on many levels. Perhaps exercising patience and continually finding the will and drive to finish was the most difficult for us. We both have families with four kids each. Our wives are such a blessing, and they supported us to find the time; however, this was extremely difficult on them. Only because of their support were we able to lead the team to finish. We made the film under a co-op program at Disney where we are fully independent of the studio, however able to use the computers after hours. We’d spend long, inspired days at the office doing our best work we could do. Then during nearly all lunches we’d make time to meet and review shots and then later in the evenings when the kids went to bed, open our computers back up to finish things. Due to the nature of the co-op, we could work with whoever we wanted to, and our volunteer crew of 200 found enough inspiration to do this for nearly six years! It put us all to the test for sure. But the end product was something that felt worthy of our time and attention.
What did you learn during the process of making this short?
As first-time directors, we learned how to make a film all the way through. Each of us typically works with our own departments [Spears in story and Engelhardt in animation]. We found new admiration and appreciation for what our colleagues do to make each stage of production so beautiful and special. We came out stronger for doing this project.
What does having your short qualify for the Oscars mean to you?
Oscar qualifying means that our film hopefully can be seen by more people, and our team’s work can be shown further out in the world. We’re so proud of everyone on this film, and this acknowledgment says a lot about each person’s amazing work. Since it was a donated time project, the audience getting to see and enjoy our film is our best way to show gratitude to them.
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