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."



Alfonso Cuarón, Cate Blanchett Bring Series ‘Disclaimer’ to Venice Film Festival 

Cast member Cate Blanchett poses on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the mini-series "Disclaimer", out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy August 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Cast member Cate Blanchett poses on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the mini-series "Disclaimer", out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy August 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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Alfonso Cuarón, Cate Blanchett Bring Series ‘Disclaimer’ to Venice Film Festival 

Cast member Cate Blanchett poses on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the mini-series "Disclaimer", out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy August 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Cast member Cate Blanchett poses on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the mini-series "Disclaimer", out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy August 29, 2024. (Reuters)

Alfonso Cuarón is the first to admit that he does not know how to make a television series. He might even be too old to learn how, he said.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker has technically now made a series, the seven-part AppleTV+ show “Disclaimer,” four episodes of which premiered Thursday at the Venice Film Festival. But he did it his way: Like a film.

Based on Renée Knight’s 2015 book of the same name, “Disclaimer” is a psychological thriller about a documentarian and journalist, Catherine Ravenscroft (Cate Blanchett), who discovers she’s a character in a novel that reveals her darkest secret.

Cuarón, Blanchett and Kevin Kline all made the journey to the Italian film festival to debut and speak about the show before it begins streaming on Oct. 11.

“I read the book and immediately in my mind I saw a film, but I didn’t know how to make that film,” Cuarón, the director of films including “Gravity” and “Roma,” said in a news conference Thursday. “It was way too long. I could not shape it as such.”

It was only later, he said, that he thought it might work in longer form, inspired by predecessors like Rainer Werner Fassbinder, David Lynch and Krzysztof Kieślowski.

“I was intrigued and that was the point of departure,” Cuarón said.

He started writing with one name in mind for Catherine: Blanchett, terrified that she might say no. Not only did she not say no, she also was the one who suggested Kline for a British character. Sacha Baron Cohen plays her husband in the show and Kodi Smit-McPhee plays her son.

All soon realized that approaching it as a film, and shooting it as a film, would take much longer than a normal series. He even enlisted two cinematographers, Emmanuel Lubezki and Bruno Delbonnel, to add a distinct visual language to the different perspectives in the story. All told, it took about a year.

“It was a really long process,” Cuarón said. “And I really feel for the actors because they were stuck with the characters for way too long.”

Blanchett laughed that they were “still recovering.”

The final three episodes will screen Friday at the festival. Though the festival is most known for its feature film premieres, it does play host to select series as well. This year those also include Joe Wright’s Mussolini biopic “M: Son of the Century,” Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The New Years” and Thomas Vinterberg’s “Families Like Ours.”