“For this year’s Programmers’ Picks, I’ve selected one of my Toronto Film Festival favorites Woman Walks Ahead. Filmmaker Susanna White’s direction of this stunning revisionist narrative is imbued with unapologetic humanity and passion, featuring riveting performances by Jessica Chastain and Michael Greyeyes as complex historical figures and unlikely allies pitted against Sam Rockwell (in a perfectly pitched turn as the mean-spirited Colonel Silas Groves). Although artist Catherine Weldon actually journeyed to the Dakotas in the 1880s as an activist member of the National Indian Defense Association, White’s portrayal of the heroine as intrepid but politically naïve is surprisingly effective in underscoring her radical awakening to the oppression of White racism and the political complexities of the American West―even as she faces explicit sexism and the punishing realities of the prairie. With exceptional cinematography and musical score, Woman Walks Ahead recreates this visual and sonic world with unhurried clarity and nuance.” — Karen Sloe Goodman, Programmer
Based on true events, Woman Walks Ahead tells the story of Catherine Weldon (Jessica Chastain), a widowed artist from New York who, in the 1880s, traveled alone to North Dakota to paint a portrait of Chief Sitting Bull (Michael Greyeyes). Her arrival at Standing Rock is met with open hostility by a US Army officer who has stationed troops around the Lakota reservation to undermine Native American claims to the land. As Catherine and Sitting Bull grow closer, and as their friendship—and his life—are threatened by government forces, Catherine must stand up and fight for what is most important to her.
