Indigenous Musician Goes -- Reluctantly -- For Oscars Glory 

Songwriter Scott George, member of the Osage Native Americans Tribe, poses for a picture at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, on February 14, 2024. (AFP)
Songwriter Scott George, member of the Osage Native Americans Tribe, poses for a picture at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, on February 14, 2024. (AFP)
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Indigenous Musician Goes -- Reluctantly -- For Oscars Glory 

Songwriter Scott George, member of the Osage Native Americans Tribe, poses for a picture at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, on February 14, 2024. (AFP)
Songwriter Scott George, member of the Osage Native Americans Tribe, poses for a picture at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, on February 14, 2024. (AFP)

Scott George spends his weekdays providing affordable housing for Native American families in Oklahoma, and his weekends singing at traditional Osage dances.

That schedule will have to be interrupted next month as he travels to Hollywood for the Oscars, where the song he wrote for Martin Scorsese will compete with tracks from Billie Eilish, Mark Ronson and Jon Batiste for an Academy Award.

"I guess you could use the word surreal. But I don't really know what that means any more compared to this," George told AFP.

"Music is -- even though it's something I wake up with every day -- it's something we pursue on the weekends," he said.

George is a proud member of the Osage Nation, whose often tragic history forms the subject of Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon."

The movie, which is up for 10 awards on March 10, tells the story of how the Osage struck enormous oil wealth in the early 20th century, only to be exploited and murdered by their duplicitous white neighbors.

The film was made with the deep collaboration of the Osage people, and filmed on location in their heartland.

Its lead actress Lily Gladstone has Blackfeet and Nez Perce heritage, and the movie's musical score was composed by the late Robbie Robertson, who also is of Native American ancestry. Both are also Oscar nominees.

Scorsese also was determined to have an authentic Osage song at the finale of his epic drama.

George recalls one of his fellow musicians spotting the director in the stands at a ceremonial dance, as they took a break between sets.

"It was like, 'Oh wow, so he's watching us,'" said George. "So when he asked us about the song, or about putting a song in there, we knew what he wanted."

Even so, the initial answer was no. Many Osage songs contain the names of old warriors from two or three centuries ago.

"These are ours. This belongs to us," explained George.

"And so we said, 'Well, we can't give him that. We can do something close, but we can't give him that.'

"So that's where that came from. We started composing our own song for him."

'Poems'

The result was "Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)," a powerful six-and-a-half minute anthem featuring thunderous drums, and lyrics encouraging the Osage people to stand up and be proud after surviving so many ordeals.

The movie and song came at a perfect time for tribal elders, who were embarking on a campaign to educate younger members about their history, and to remind them that "we're still here, we are not relics," said Geoffrey Standing Bear, chief of the Osage nation.

"We're not that trusting of outsiders given our history. But Scorsese and his team showed that trust to us, and us to them," he recalled.

"So when you see our ceremonies, and you see all the different activities, and you hear the music? That's Osage... these songs are poems."

Having made the 15-strong Oscars shortlist, the track was not considered a favorite to earn a best song nomination, meaning the announcement last month was greeted with euphoria by many attached to the film.

"Isn't it great? For me to be nominated for playing an Osage character, it's so important that an Osage person has also been nominated," best actress contender Gladstone told AFP.

But for George, describing his Oscar nomination as an "achievement" does not sit well, because it was "not something I aspired to do."

"I'm comfortable providing music for my people," he said. "Outside of that, it gets a little touchy."

Having now seen his song embraced by Academy voters, George does see it as important that a form of music that had often been "comically depicted in cartoons" is now being recognized.

"I just want the world to see it and understand it, maybe develop an ear for it. Because it's out there. You can go to YouTube and listen to powwows," he said.

"We understand it's got its niche and probably will always just have that niche. But hopefully people will get to hear it, feel the power that's in it.

"Because there's power in it."

Though not yet confirmed this year, it is traditional for all five nominated songs to be performed live during the Oscars ceremony, typically by their original singers.

George has already attended starry events including the Academy's annual nominees luncheon in Los Angeles, where he rubbed shoulders with his "rivals" such as Eilish and Batiste.

"We were on a Zoom call the other day with all of us, and I was a little starstruck. 'Who are these people and what am I doing here?'" he recalled.

"My wife put it best -- 'You've been singing for 45 years, that should put you somewhere.' I guess so."



Syrian Migrant Drama Opens Berlin Film Festival

 German film director Tom Tykwer (C) pose with German actress Nicolette Krebitz (L) and German actor Lars Eidinger during a photo call for the film “Das Licht“ (The light) in the "Berlinale special" section of the 75th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, in Berlin on February 13, 2025. (AFP)
German film director Tom Tykwer (C) pose with German actress Nicolette Krebitz (L) and German actor Lars Eidinger during a photo call for the film “Das Licht“ (The light) in the "Berlinale special" section of the 75th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, in Berlin on February 13, 2025. (AFP)
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Syrian Migrant Drama Opens Berlin Film Festival

 German film director Tom Tykwer (C) pose with German actress Nicolette Krebitz (L) and German actor Lars Eidinger during a photo call for the film “Das Licht“ (The light) in the "Berlinale special" section of the 75th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, in Berlin on February 13, 2025. (AFP)
German film director Tom Tykwer (C) pose with German actress Nicolette Krebitz (L) and German actor Lars Eidinger during a photo call for the film “Das Licht“ (The light) in the "Berlinale special" section of the 75th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, in Berlin on February 13, 2025. (AFP)

German director Tom Tykwer said Thursday that his latest movie about a Syrian immigrant aimed to encourage people to stop "isolating" themselves, as it opened Berlin's international film festival.

"The Light", screening out of competition at the Berlinale, tells the story of a middle-class Berlin family whose lives are upended when they hire a new domestic worker from Syria.

The movie marks a return to feature filmmaking after a long hiatus for Tykwer, 59, who has been focusing on the acclaimed German television series "Babylon Berlin".

In "The Light", the Engels family -- Tim, Milena and their teenage twins -- are all immersed in their separate worlds as they navigate the complexities of modern life.

But when the enigmatic Farrah, recently arrived from Syria, is placed in their home as the new housekeeper, they find themselves slowly starting to reconnect.

"Everyone is in their own aquarium with their head stuck in it," Tykwer said.

"They are stuck with their heads under water and then some energy comes from the outside and pulls them out and enables them look at each other again."

'Extra urgency'

Tykwer said the film aimed to show that better communication can help people to relate personally but also "politically".

"We have to approach each other again and stop isolating ourselves so much," he said.

The Berlinale, which ranks with Cannes and Venice among Europe's top festivals, serves as a key launchpad for films from around the world.

US writer and director Todd Haynes will head up the jury at this year's edition, with 19 pictures vying for the festival's Golden Bear top prize.

Haynes said Thursday that the world was in a "state of particular crisis" and that filmmakers had witnessed the return of US President Donald Trump "with tremendous concern, shock".

Haynes said he hoped the Berlinale, which has a reputation as the most political of the big international film festivals, would serve as a forum for digesting global events.

"This festival has always had a strength of conviction and an openness to a challenging and political discourse and bringing that into the filmmaking, and what's happening in the world right now has put an extra urgency to all of that," he told reporters.

This year's Berlinale winds up on February 23, the same day as a snap election in Germany, called after the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's governing coalition late last year.

The campaign ahead of the election has been bitterly divisive, with the far-right AfD surging in the polls.

'Resistance'

Last year, Berlinale organizers made headlines by barring five previously invited AfD politicians and telling them they were "not welcome".

Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle said cinema could be an act of "resistance... to all of the perverse ideas that many far-right parties across the whole world and across Europe are spreading".

"This is a space where we want to come together and listen to each other and communicate through cinema... I think the very fact we're all here is a resistance," she said.

Films in competition at the Berlinale include "Dreams", from Mexican director Michel Franco, about a Mexican ballet dancer, and "What Does that Nature Say to You", from South Korean arthouse favorite Hong Sang-soo.

Hollywood director Richard Linklater will present "Blue Moon", starring Ethan Hawke, 11 years after Linklater won Berlin's Silver Bear for Best Director for "Boyhood".

Romanian director Radu Jude, who won the Golden Bear in 2021, is in the running with "Kontinental '25", a dark comedy about the rise of nationalism.

And France's Lucile Hadzihalilovic will present "The Ice Tower", a fantasy drama starring Marion Cotillard.

South Korean director Bong Joon-ho will present out of competition his new film "Mickey 17" with Robert Pattinson, and British actor Tilda Swinton will receive a lifetime achievement award.