Film explores AI and Indigenous perspective
Lindsey Bark
Cherokee Phoenix
TAHLEQUAH – Cherokee Nation citizen and filmmaker Joseph Erb is giving insight into his next film project that blends artificial intelligence with an Indigenous perspective.
The film has a working title of “Redbird and the Robot,” and includes an elder played by renowned Cherokee actor Wes Studi who is assigned an Indian Health Service AI robot.
Shot entirely in the Cherokee language, the film explores the relationship between the elder and the robot. Humor and traditional knowledge are used to educate the robot about Indigenous values leading to a transformation in the robot’s operating system.
“It’s a film about a Cherokee elder being assigned a IHS AI robot to live with him for diabetes and depression, and he doesn’t like his robot. It’s kind of forced upon him to have this healthcare,” Erb said.
Erb explained in the premise for the story, set in an alternative modern time, AI has taken over most of the world’s governments. In the United States, AI has taken over federal health care programs for Native people.
“It’s also running this very poorly made IHS robot,” he said. “Like government-funded stuff for Native people, for government contracting, it was the lowest bidder that that was able to get the contract for these robots – a robot that’s not the best made. There’s some resentment toward the robots and their lack of quality.”
As the story goes on, Redbird convinces the robot that it too is Indigenous because it was made from parts mined on Indigenous lands.
“He explains to AI because he’s part of this land he’s Indigenous like him,” Erb said.
The AI robot begins to understand the Indigenous thought process and starts rejecting colonial capitalism and begins promoting sustainable practices through an Indigenous lens.
Erb said he was grateful to have Wes Studi as lead in the film, as an actor and as a first-language Cherokee speaker.
“We couldn’t be more honored to have an advocate of language and culture on our project,” Erb said.
The film is very Cherokee-centric, being shot in the Cherokee language as well as in the Cherokee community.
“I wanted to make a film that Native speakers of the language would enjoy and could relate with,” Erb said. “It would also be something that would allow the outside world to get a glimpse and understanding of the community and the humor that lives in this community despite things that go on. Cherokees go on and laugh and have fun, and they also have a hard time, and they have a hard time together. I just wanted that complexity of the world being shown on screen.”
“Redbird and the Robot,” currently still in production is expected to be completed in late fall.
Erb said he was able to work with a number of filmmakers including former Pixar film editor Kevin Nolting, writer Daniel H. Wilson, producer Loren Waters and filmmaker Sterlin Harjo.
“I’m really proud of this film. It’s probably the best film I’ve ever shot, and I’m really happy about the groups that came in and worked on this film,” he said. “There are so many Indigenous people that came in and even some non-Indigenous people. We were able to get so much more Indigenous representation on and off camera that 20 years ago when I was making film was not as prominent as it is today. It’s really exciting to see how film has been changing over the last two decades.”
