16 DECEMBER 12-18, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Road to Revival BAD INDIAN IS A NEW FILM THAT FOLLOWS THE EMOTIONAL JOURNEY OF DENVER COMIC JOSHUA EMERSON. BY TONI TRESCA In December 2019, Joshua Emerson traveled to Durango to confront the most painful deci- sion of his life: taking his mother off life sup- port. Just months earlier, she had cheered him on at his homecoming comedy show in the area, offering a piece of advice that would guide him long after she was gone. “She told us, ‘Boys, if you want to succeed in this, you’ve got to write, write, write,’” Emerson recalls. His mother fell into a coma a week after giving her son that guidance and never woke up. Her death was devastating for Emerson, but those words stayed with him as he navigated the deep grief of her passing. “After her death, I realized that I actu- ally didn’t like my banking job. I just did it because it was something that I felt like other people would respect,” Emerson says. “But I love comedy, and her passing sealed my want to pursue comedy in a real way before I tried to get another banking job.” Her words became the foundation of his new path. By 2020, he was producing comedy shows in Denver, focusing on Native come- dians and eventually co-creating Bad Indian, a new documentary that fuses his journey of grief with an exploration of Native identity. The fi lm, directed by Emerson’s longtime collaborator and friend Jeff Stonic, is a love letter to his mother and refl ects the resilience and humor that defi ne Native communities. Bad Indian follows Emerson’s journey to produce Netfl ix’s fi rst all-Native lineup in Los Angeles while spreading his mother’s ashes along the way, but ultimately leads to a rediscovery of the meaning of life. “Every year I would go to a different festival and spread my mom’s ashes,” Emerson says. “We did the show in Los Angeles, and it’s in- teresting, because the grief was so strong when she passed away, but I’m starting to get to a place where the grief is sort of leaving. While I do love my mother and I miss her, grief is also temporary. I’m moving on to the next phase of my life, so this has been a nice little project to show how much I love my mom, how much I miss her, and how she inspired me to really pursue this sort of alternative career path.” For those who know him, Emerson is nothing short of dynamic. A Navajo come- dian, writer and actor based in Denver, he’s as comfortable refl ecting on such emotionally charged subjects as race as he is delivering high-energy punchlines. A founding member of DeadRoom Comedy, an enter- tainment production company, Emerson has created award- winning live shows including Dead Inside, which won the 2021 Denver Fringe Festival’s Audience Choice Award for Best Comedy Show. Raised in the liminal spaces between Phoenix, where he lived with his white father, and the Navajo Nation, where he spent school breaks with his Indigenous mother, Emerson grew up navigating multiple identities. “Growing up, Native Amer- icans were the funniest people in my life,” he says. “But when I looked around, there were not any real Native comics doing the club systems. This really frustrated me, so I started pro- ducing Native comedy shows here in Denver. I’ve made it my life’s pursuit to show how central humor is to our culture.” His military service as a Marine and his economics degree from Fort Lewis College might seem out of place in a comedian’s biography, but they’re part of the duality that defi nes him. After moving to Denver in 2019, Emerson quickly became a fi xture in the city’s thriving comedy scene. “Denver’s comedy scene is one of the best in the world,” he says. “I went to school in Du- rango and Jeff went to school in Indianapolis, but for whatever reason, we both ended up in Denver and began performing comedy together. Then we began collaborating on fi lm projects. Bad Indian is something that Denver birthed, and I think that’s really cool.” The idea for Bad Indian took shape dur- ing a road trip earlier this year. Emerson and Stonic decided to document their travels as Emerson spread his mother’s ashes on their way to produce the fi rst all-Native lineup for the Netfl ix Is a Joke festival in Los Angeles. Stonic, an experienced fi lmmaker with a style Emerson describes as “beautiful chaos,” brought the raw footage to life, creating a fi lm that weaves intimate personal moments with universal themes. “Jeff has been doing fi lm since eighth grade, and this project really shows him maturing as a fi lmmaker,” Emerson says. “He shot it mostly on a Sony Alpha 7 and it still looks fucking gorgeous. There’s some shots in the fi lm that need to be seen on the big screen. I’m also proud of Jeff because not only do the shots help advance the fi lm, but they are pictures in motion, which is cool to see. And it doesn’t feel like it’s just beautiful to look cool — it contributes to the story.” With early screenings on Indigenous Peoples’ Day at the Bug Theatre, an entry into the prestigious Native American fi lm festival LA Skins Fest in November and a showing and Q&A at Chaos Bloom Theater last weekend, the fi lm has already piqued the interest of Native fi lmmakers and audiences. “To have Native fi lmmakers come up and be like, ‘This is beautiful,’ was really powerful,” Emerson says of his experience at the LA Skins Fest. “It was inspiring going to L.A. because I saw some kind of shallow stuff, but we also saw some really good stuff, and I would put Bad Indian in that category. Everyone said it was one of the funniest things at the festival. Even though it discusses my mother’s death, the story contains dark humor, which I believe is a natural response to trauma, particularly among Native Americans. To see that refl ected in the audience experience was incredible.” While the fi lm has reached picture lock, it still requires professional coloring and sound design to meet industry standards. The team launched a Seed & Spark campaign to raise $8,500 for those fi nishing touches and to compensate collaborators like Gandy, who has served as creative director on the project. “The colorist we are working with has worked on Netfl ix projects, and the sound guy has worked with the LA Clippers and Hans Zimmer, so it’s real people that we’re trying to get involved with,” Emerson says. “We want this to be a fi nished product that belongs on the big screen.” The fundraising campaign runs until December 31 and has already raised $2,750 (32 percent of the goal). Contributors will receive exclusive benefi ts such as custom Indigenous Monopoly cards, a thank-you in the credits and a video chat with the director based on their donation level. On Saturday, December 14, Bad Indian will screen at Dude, IDK Studios in Denver, with a Q&A session featuring Emerson and Stonic. “Both me and Jeff are entertainers, so the Q&A sessions are going to be fun; they have already been fun at the fi lm festival,” Emerson says. “We’re going to make you laugh in an organic way, because that’s what we fucking do. Ask whatever you want, and I guarantee you’re going to be entertained, no matter what.” The team’s future plans for Bad Indian are as ambitious as the fi lm’s content is personal. Emerson and Stonic hope to tour the fi lm across North America, targeting cities with signifi cant Native populations and reserva- tions, as well as major urban comedy and fi lm festival markets. While self-distribution through screenings and comedy shows is the current focus, they’re also submitting Bad Indian to festivals such as SeriesFest and exploring options for broader distribution. As he refl ects on the journey, Emerson acknowledges that Bad Indian is the “most vulnerable” work he has ever undertaken. Through the fi lm, he exposes his grief, hu- mor and identity in ways that allow audi- ences to truly see him. “The story is so powerful, because Native people haven’t seen a story told like this,” Emerson says. “Even though the story is familiar to them — the early death of a par- ent and how do you deal with that — it goes beyond what’s expected. There’s so much beauty in Native stories, and it’s time the world sees that.” Bad Indian free screening, Saturday, December 14, Dude, IDK Studios, 2419 East 28th Avenue. Learn more about the Seed & Spark fundraising campaign here. CULTURE KEEP UP ON DENVER ARTS AND CULTURE AT WESTWORD.COM/ARTS “Native people haven’t seen a story told like this,” says Joshua Emerson. JEFF STONIC
