Jim Sheridan co-directs film about Ponca chief's fight for Native rights

Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan and producer Andrew Troy are currently working on a new historical drama about the Ponca chief and civil rights leader Luther Standing Bear.

The film, called I Am a Man: The True Story of Chief Standing Bear, got formal resolutions of support from the Ponca Tribe. It will depict the Ponca's Trail of Tears march that led to the 1879 landmark trial of Standing Bear against the USA.

Although the legal case is rather unknown, it contributed to all Native Americans being considered human beings in the eyes of the law. It was also a cornerstone in the fight for equality and established a precedent for many future human and civil rights cases in US courts.

“The old Lakota was wise!

He knew that man's heart,
away from nature, becomes hard;
he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led
to lack of respect for
humans too.”

~ Luther Standing Bear, (Matȟó Nážiŋ) Sicangu/Oglala Lakota, 1858-1939, ✨ pic.twitter.com/QK3I6mSTc8

— Native Red CloudMaȟpíya Lúta~Hińhan Wakangli⚡️ (@Native3rd) April 9, 2023

Dublin-born filmmaker and playwright Jim Sheridan is best known for directing the critically acclaimed films My Left Foot (1989), The Field (1990), and In the Name of the Father (1993), which are all set in Ireland. He received six Academy Award nominations and numerous international awards for his films.

Andrew Troy's credits in film production include titles such as Miracle in East Texas (2019), Rated (2016), and A Fighting Season (2015). Together with American Psycho writer Guinevere Turner, he is currently working on the screenplay of the upcoming Midnight in the Orange Grove.

According to Troy, he got the idea to make the film as he "learned that even Native people are unfamiliar with [Standing Bear‘s] name and the impact he had on their lives."