A community dance was filmed on the Osage Nation campus May 14 for the highly anticipated film, “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Before the dance began, famed director Martin Scorsese addressed the crowd of more than 200 Osages and their friends and families.
“We’re so grateful for the love that you put into this film,” Scorsese said. “We appreciate you, we appreciate the Osage people and we’re so grateful for your participation today. Thank You so much.”
The dance was closed to the public and only Osage cast members, Osage crew and Osage extras that were part of the film were invited, along with their family and friends.
The film is an adaptation of David Grann’s bestselling book, “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.” The book details the true story of the systematic murders of Osage tribal members for their oil wealth in the 1920s and how that investigation helped form the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Osage Language Department director Vann Bighorse and singer Scott George spoke to the crowd about the two songs they composed specifically for the film. George said the production team was concerned about copyright infringement. To ease their worries, George and Bighorse composed the two songs together for months, singing to each other on the phone driving back and forth to work.
“So you know what you’re listening to, what you’re hearing, we’re talking about our people,” George said. “We want you to stand up, we want you to get up and dance and know that God got you here. That God got our people this far, like that. That’s the words of my song.”
Bighorse said he had a lot of versions of the way he made his song.
“It says God made our dance, and there’s a lot of versions of that,” Bighorse said. “And you’ll hear the words Wakanda Ga.xo.beh, Inlonshka Ga.xo.beh, and there’s a lot of different versions of that and it was in my mind, so that’s the song that I made.”
The Osage News has spoken off the record with Osages who were involved with the filming but since they are bound by non-disclosure agreements, they cannot speak about their experience until after the film premieres.
However, social media was flooded with photos from the dance over the weekend. Photos of Scorsese and other production crew members who became close with the Osage community during filming were posted to Facebook and Instagram.
The film’s cast boasts some of the best actors in Hollywood, Native and non-Native. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Brendan Fraser, John Lithgow, Lily Gladstone, Tatanka Means, Michael Abbott Jr., Pat Healy, Scott Shepherd, William Belleau, Louis Cancelmi, Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins and Jillian Dion.
An official release date for the film has not been announced.
