Movie rec!
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Movie rec! ️ ️ Did you know most tribes don't protect free press? As such, many tribal newspapers require approval from tribal government --- functionally making them government PR instead of real journalism.
🧵 1/3
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The documentary BAD PRESS follows a hardscrabble team of Mvskoke reporters fighting to get free press protections in tribal law.
This movie will inspire you to go HELL YEAH JOURNALISM and HELL YEAH INDIGENEITY. Plus my friend Angel Ellis is hilarious and badass. I'm excited y'all finally get to watch this.
I heard Netflix turned it down, but the Criterion Channel picked it up.
🧵 2/3
Bad Press - The Criterion Channel
Directed by Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler • 2023 • United States A timely, riveting documentary that unfurls with the energy and suspense of a thriller, BAD PRESS—winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression—offers unparalleled insight into the inner workings of Indigenous politics. Imagine you lived in a world where your only reliable news source became government propaganda overnight. That’s exactly what happened to the citizens of the Muscogee Nation in 2018. Out of 574 federally recognized tribes, the Muscogee Nation was one of only five to establish a free and independent press—until the nation’s legislative branch abruptly repealed the landmark Free Press Act in advance of an election. Refusing to accept this flagrant act of oppression, one defiant journalist, Angel Ellis, charges headfirst into a historic battle against her tribal government’s censorship and corruption.
The Criterion Channel (www.criterionchannel.com)