‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Is a Missed Opportunity on MMIW
Acclaimed filmmaker Martin Scorsese’s newest movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, has racked up more than $100 million at the box office and countless accolades. The film tells the story of white exploitation of members of the Osage Nation, fueled by greed for oil money.
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, as well as Indigenous actress Lily Gladstone, the film has faced criticism for glorifying the murders of Osage Indians and telling the story through a white lens. According to Indigenous journalist Frank Hopper’s latest piece for YES!, Scorsese also overlooked the critical issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Hopper, whose work has appeared on Last Real Indians, Indian Country Today, and in The Stranger, reviewed the film with YES! Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali.
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Sonali Kolhatkar
is currently the racial justice editor at YES! Media and a writing fellow with Independent Media Institute. She was previously a weekly columnist for Truthdig.com. She is also the host and creator of Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. Sonali won First Place at the Los Angeles Press Club Annual Awards for Best Election Commentary in 2016. She also won numerous awards including Best TV Anchor from the LA Press Club and has also been nominated as Best Radio Anchor 4 years in a row. She is the author of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence, and the co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women's Mission. Her forthcoming book is Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (City Lights, 2023). She has a Master’s in Astronomy from the University of Hawai’i, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. She reflects on her professional path in her 2014 TEDx talk, “My Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host.” She can be reached at sonalikolhatkar.com
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