Who IS Chris Eyre?

 (Pictured: Chris Eyre... looking bad ass.)
(Rotten Tomatoes) The large-framed and ponytailed filmmaker Chris Eyre is a member of the Cheyenne/Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma.

(PRWeb) Eyre and his films have amassed numerous awards, including a Peabody and an Emmy.

"Chris Eyre is freaking awesome"- Kelly Fayard, famed film studies professor and awesome human


So this Chris Eyre guy has been getting a lot of attention lately, and we here at NativeAmericanHollywood thought we should check him out.
Really, what's so special about him? Why is he such a big deal? Who IS he!?

Well that's what we thought originally, but after doing some back ground work and digging a little deeper we uncovered just how remarkable this guy really is.

First off, he is a member of the Cheyenne/Arapaho tribes but grew up as an adopted son of white parents in Portland, Oregon. He eventually re-established ties with his family in order to come to terms with his heritage when he was a teenager. From there, he went to film school at NYU, and after making a couple well received short films, he hit it big with his first feature. He and Native American writer Sherman Alexie teamed up to create Smoke Signals a very fun and significant film that had a strong Native American message but was also very entertaining. 
OK so we can tell that he has had a passion about film from the start considering NYU film school is one of the most prestigious in the nation and you must be serious about it if you're gonna try and succeed there. And succeed he did- his short film "Tenacity" that he made in school won him awards and attention, allowing him to connect with Sherman Alexie and jump start his career.

I also wanna point out that, and it's something we really respect about Eyre, is that he is so passionate about representing his Native culture well and debunking many offensive and inaccurate stereotypes. Yet his films are so entertaining at the same time! We've seen a couple of his films, Smoke Signals, Edge of America, Skinwalkers, Skins, and each of them is great. Yet so often now a days we see films about Native Americans that are slow and hard to relate to and not exciting. But Eyre seems to accomplish the best of both worlds, which is one of the best things about him.

Eyre was a pioneer as well, because when he directed Smoke Signals he became the first Native American to direct a major release feature film. That is pretty remarkable in itself, but to make it even COOLER, the film went on to win a bunch of awards at Sundance.

So clearly, this guy is the real deal. He has accomplished so much already and yet has such a bright future ahead of him. We are extremely excited to follow his work and are even more excited to see what he does next.

Keep an eye on this guy. He's special.

-Moose and J-dog