Aanin-

Nearly two years ago I walked into Spike Lee’s office with the idea for the little film that would
become Rez: a film meant to honor a late friend but also shed some light on the plight of the 7th
generation, a group of young men and women who have come of age in the time of the 7th fire. In the
original prophecy, the task of the 7th generation is difficult: they are given the calling of returning to the
trail to find what was left there, returning to their people the spiritual ways that have been lost.
On this journey though, they are promised no help from the elder generation, many of whom it is said
will point in the wrong direction, remain silent out of fear or cease to offer anything because they are
not asked. And so the young people of the 7th generation are left to rediscover the nature of the circle,
and in doing so find a way to trust and develop their innermost judgment.
I can think of no better allegory for the times in which in we live, confusing as they are, and divided as
we seem one man from another.

Rez started as an attempt to answer in my heart why a dear friend, a student at Harvard, was gunned
down by a Sureño a few months before he could finish his education. It was an attempt to answer one
question: “why was he there?” It has since become something much larger, something more universal:
“Where are our young people? Where is the 7th generation?”

The answer that I uncovered while working on this film was very clear.

We are scattered. We are confused. But most of all, we are lonely.

It is hard to do the right thing, and the road of those young people who choose to is a lonely one. This
is something I felt many times as I went about preparing to shoot Rez in what many assured me was the
most difficult, but in my mind only right way to do it: with an all Native cast, on location, and with the
support of the community. It is something I saw in the faces of the young men and women of Leech
Lake struggling to find their way. And it is something we’re seeing on a larger national scale as the 7th
generation stumbles towards adulthood, trying desperately to live up to our billing.

This is what Rez is about, and what, in part, prompted Spike Lee to lend his support. That support
enabled us to do the film the right way, spending three months in the community and casting real people
from the community. Now, as Rez nears completion, we are reaching out again for help finishing the
film. We have a powerful film in the works, one that we hope will touch the hearts and minds of many.
But there are a few technicalities that we still need to take care of: sound design and mixing, color
correction, score and festival submissions. These final steps are small, but they mean a big difference to
the quality of the final product, which I personally demand of myself be of the highest quality. The 7th
generation deserves nothing less.

DOMINIQUE DELEON