CHASKE SPENCER (VIRGIL FIRST RAISE) was born of the Lakota Sioux tribe, and raised on Indian Reservations in Montana and Idaho. When he was young, he dreamt of becoming a photographer. Instead, he found himself in front of the camera, pursuing an acting career.
Chaske moved to New York City where he worked as a bartender and waiter. He was cast in his very first off off-Broadway play, DRACULA, playing the title role. From there he did a number of New York Theatre pieces, performed at THE PUBLIC THEATRE in NYC and THE ROUNDABOUT and was fortunate enough to be discovered by television/film Casting Director Rene Haynes.
DAVID MORSE (AIRPLANE MAN) is an Emmy Award nominated actor with thirty years experience in film and television. Among his many film credits are The Hurt Locker, Disturbia, Proof of Life, The Green Mile, Contact and The Rock. He was also a lead in The Slaughter Rule, directed by Alex and Andrew Smith.
On television Morse appeared as Dr. Jack "Boomer" Morrison in the series St. Elsewhere. He was nominated for a Prime Time Emmy for a Guest Star appearance on House M.D. for Fox and again for his work as George Washington in the HBO mini-series John Adams. Currently he is in New Orleans filming the David Simon's HBO series Treme.
GARY FARMER (LAME BULL) was born in Ohsweken, Ontario into the Cayuga Nation and Wolf Clan of the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois Confederacy. Farmer studied film production and photography at Syracuse University and Ryerson Polytechnic University.
Farmer's first big role was on the CBC's SPIRIT BAY. He is known for his role as the spiritual guide "Nobody" in DEAD MAN. He reprised the role in GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI.
JULIA JONES (AGNES) studied at The Boston Ballet School from the age of 4. She has modeled for Levis, Etnies, Esprit, and L'Oreal. She is a descendant of the Choctaw First Nation of Northern Mississippi as well as being part Chickasaw.
Jones graduated from the historic Boston Latin School, the oldest school in America, and later Columbia University with a degree in English. She will appear this summer in The TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE, the third film based on the Twilight series. She was awarded the FAITA Award for Best Actress in Black Cloud in 2004.
ANDREW SMITH(WRITER, DIRECTOR) is a filmmaker, poet, screenwriter and Assistant Professor in the School of Media Arts at the University of Montana.
ALEX SMITH(WRITER, DIRECTOR) is a prize-winning filmmaker, screenwriter, educator and author of short fiction. Alex teaches Screenwriting and Directing at the University of Texas at Austin, and is the Creative Director of the non-profit University of Texas Film Institute (UTFI), where he recently produced Dance With The One — a full-length feature-film made entirely by students, but mentored by professionals in the film industry.
THE BROTHERS SMITH co-wrote and co-directed the award-winning feature film, The Slaughter Rule, starring Ryan Gosling and David Morse, and Amy Adams. Premiering in the Main Competition at the Sundance Film Festival, and continuing on to be one of only two American features to screen at the prestigious 2002 New Directors/New Films series at the Museum of Modern Art. The Slaughter Rule screened at dozens of film festivals, garnering top awards at the Santa Fe, Nashville and Sydney Film Festivals, as well as the Critic's Prize at the Stockholm International Film Festival. Released in theaters in spring 2003 by Cowboy Pictures, The Slaughter Rule was released on home video by the Sundance Channel, and is currently featured on Showtime, IFC and Sundance cable channels.
KEN WHITE(WRITER, CO-PRODUCER) is a poet, screenwriter, and proud member of the Screen Actor's Guild, who received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana. His poetry has appeared in The Boston Review, The Tusculum Review, and is forthcoming in Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art. His screenplay Blight, co-written with John Jackson Braider, was optioned by Titan films in association with Sony and later by JML films. He has also written screen adaptations of Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther (with J.J. Braider), and the seminal medieval Irish epic The Tain Bo Cuailgne – The Cattle Raid of Cooley. He is currently working on a new script, The Wereman.
HEATHER RAE(EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) has worked as a producer and executive for twenty years. In September of 2009 she was named one of Variety's Ten Producers To Watch. First Americans in the Arts also recognized her for Achievement in Producing. She produced Frozen River, which premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, won the Grand Jury Prize and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics. Frozen River was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Actress and Best Screenplay, won the Gotham Award for Best Picture and Best Actress and was nominated for seven Spirit Awards resulting in a Best Actress win for Melissa Leo and the Producer of the Year for Rae. Rae produced The Dry Land, which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
Previously Rae has had producing roles in a number of narrative and documentary feature films playing at film festivals throughout the world and in the global marketplace including Trudell which premièred at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and played Tribeca, SilverDocs, Full Frame, Seattle and over 100 other festivals.
Rae has worked as an advisor or consultant to the Sundance Institute, ITVS, the Rockefeller Foundation, National Geographic, PBS, Film Independent, the Independent Feature Project, and other media companies and organizations.
RENE HAYNES(CASTING DIRECTOR) is a two time Emmy Nominee; In 2006 for the TNT/DreamWorks mini-series INTO THE WEST and in 2007 for the HBO feature BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE, for which she also won a CSA Artios Award for "Outstanding Casting".
In addition to being recognized in the entertainment industry as one of the foremost experts in Native American and First Nations casting, Rene specializes in conducting international talent searches and enjoys taking on projects with specific and challenging casting needs. Her world-wide search for the female lead in the Terrence Malick feature THE NEW WORLD, being one successful example. (The film's young lead went on to be named "Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actress" in 2005 by the National Board of Review.)
In 2009 Rene became part of the casting team on the widely popular TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON and TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE. Having now seen (almost) every young actor in the US, the UK, Australia and Canada gives Rene a strong perspective on the "who's who" amongst the established and emerging youth talent pool.
CHRIS CRONYN(PRODUCER) is a Line Producer and Production Manager of feature films. He recently completed "WAKING MADISON", an independently financed feature film produced by Fixed Point Films in New Orleans. The film was made for under $4.5 million and is currently seeking distribution.
He has also worked on many studio productions. His production manager credits include FATAL ATTRACTION, MERMAIDS, THUNDERHEART, BAD BOYS, and HEAT. His producer credits include REACH THE ROCK, MEET THE DEEDLES, LOST SOULS, and THE SLAUGHTER RULE, which he co-produced in Montana for writer/directors Alex and Andrew Smith.
SHERMAN J. ALEXIE(ASSOCIATE PRODUCER) is a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian who grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He has earned the Washington State Arts Commission Poetry Fellowship and the NEA Poetry Fellowship for THE BUSINESS OF FANCYDANCING and I WOULD STEAL HORSES, and the PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Book of Fiction for the short story collection, THE LONE RANGER AND TONTO FISTFIGHT IN HEAVEN.
Alexie wrote the script to SMOKE SIGNALS, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won two awards: the Audience Award and the Filmmakers Trophy. In 1999 the film received a Christopher Award, an award presented to the creators of artistic works "which affirm the highest values of the human spirit." Alexie was also nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.
His most recent honors include the 2010 Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction, for his collection WAR DANCES; the 2009 Odyssey Award for THE ABSOLUTLY TRUE DIARY audio book; a 2008 Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award for MIDDLE GRADES AND YOUNG ADULTS, a Washington Book Award; a 2008 Stranger Genius Award; the 2008 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children's Literature in Fiction; and the 2007 National Book Award in Young People's Literature for his young adult novel THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART TIME INDIAN. Alexie lives in Seattle, WA, with his wife and two sons.
Virgil First Raise wakes with a shiner and a hangover in a roadside ditch on the stark but beautiful plains of Montana. As he rises to face the day he sees a vision of his father lying dead at his feet. Impossible-- his father froze to death in a snowdrift years earlier. Virgil returns home to find that his wife, Agnes, has left him. Worse, she's taken his electric razor and his beloved rifle.
Virgil sets out to find her-- beginning a hi-line odyssey of inebriated encounters, sexual skirmishes, and improbable cloak-and-dagger intrigues with the mysterious 'Airplane Man'. Virgil's quest also brings him face-to-face with childhood memories and visions of his beloved, lost brother Mose-- some glorious, some tragic. Only when Virgil seeks the counsel of an old, blind man named Yellow Calf, does he grasp the truth of his origins and begin to thaw the ice in his veins.
James Welch was born in Browning, Montana, in 1940 and was raised on the Blackfeet and Fort Belknap reservations. His father was Blackfeet, his mother Gros Ventre, each having Irish ancestors. In the mid 1960’s, the family settled in Harlem, Montana, just off the reservation.
From an early age, Welch dreamed of becoming a writer. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Montana and continued his study of creative writing in the university’s MFA program. Welch married Lois Monk, a professor of English and comparative literature in 1968.
His first book of poetry, Riding the Earthboy 40, was published in 1971. In addition to Winter in the Blood and The Death of Jim Loney, Welch also published Fools Crow, The Indian Lawyer, and The Heartsong of Charging Elk.
In addition to his published work, workshops and conferences, Welch taught at both the University of Washington and Cornell University. He was awarded a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1995. Welch died of lung cancer in 2003 at his home in Missoula.
Thank you to everyone helping bring James Welch's novel to life.
University of Montana - College of Visual and Performing Arts
Winter in the Blood - Press & Interviews
The Write Question on MTPR - Featuring Alex Smith, Andrew Smith, and Ken White
The Write Question - The MTPR Radio Interview
Reimagining Winter in the Blood - The Buffalo Post
National Native News Interview
The Missoulian covers Feb. 13 - 14 casting call
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Native American Actors
If you missed our casting calls but would like to submit a video audition, the following scenes have been provided:
1. Two brothers (ages 12 & 14) are caught in the rain.
2. Two lovers (20's to 30's) who haven't seen each other in awhile catch up in a bar.
3. A rancher (40's to 60's) woos a widow (40's to 60's) and teases her elderly mother.
Questions may be directed to:
casting@winterinthebloodfilm.com