Red West! Fund our Indigenous Comedy Western

Hi my name is Teotl Veliz, I am a proud Chicano and founder of Great Nations Pictures, an Independent Film Company dedicated to uplifting Indigenous and POC stories. Our current project, “Red West” seeks to reclaim the Western Genre of film for Chicanx and the broader indigenous communities through comedy because we figure who better to tell the story of the “Wild West'' than its original peoples! Our project has been ongoing and we have enlisted the help of artists, actors, a Hollywood Cowboy, and even have access to the actual Wagon used in the film the “Wizard of Oz”. @vardolandia on Instagram.

Our script revolves around Carlotta, a character based on my Tatara-Tatara-Abuela, an adelita in the Mexican Revolution and a renowned Curandera. Carlotta is a bit of a maverick, a witch to blazes her way through the West in search of her long-lost family. Instead, she picks up a rag-tag bunch of travelers on their own journeys from a saloon in a dusty Western town, allowing them passage in her wagon. Each traveler has their own story to tell, but when their journey is abruptly cut short by an evil force, how will these characters continue to survive and persevere in the badlands?

The intention of the film is to show a side of the Wild West we don’t believe has ever been told, a tale that highlights the experience of an Indigenous-mexican woman who made her way into the west, and doing so from a satirical lense that challenges the way BIPOC peoples have been historically portrayed. When the idea of a Western pops into our mind we usually think of a dashing-white cowboy liberating townsfolk from “banditos” or “merciless savages”. Our job at Great Nations Pictures is to shoot that cowboy in the foot and kick him in the balls, reclaiming our land in a way that challenges stereotypes historically projected on us through a laugh!

To finish our film, we need to raise funds to perform a final weekend of filming at the beautiful Old West Temecula Ranch, our largest shoot yet where we will finish gathering footage over the course of a 2-day shoot. We currently have over 40 hours of footage with the help of an extremely dedicated and talented staff and professional equipment all done on a micro-budget. We are currently processing new footage to produce more trailers for the enjoyment of our wonderful community of viewers, and we hope that you will follow our updates on Instagram @GreatNationsPictures and on our website at insert a linked URL for the website here.

Finally, we would like to thank the community of staff, supporters, and friends who have lent their time, resources, and work to uplift this production and crew of actors, production staff, and artists. From the bottom of our hearts, we could not do this without you and we thank you dearly for helping us bring this story to life. We are beyond excited to complete this project and share it with you all.

With this, it would be a great honor and privilege to include your name on our work as we move forward. We thank you for your time and hope you enjoy, Tlazocamati!