Genre
Synopsis
THE HEART STAYS tells the story of Shannon (17) who after much family resistance travels thousands of miles away to attend college. Erin (15) is distraught at Shannon’s departure and begins to fail in school. Shannon has a difficult time adjusting to college life as she confronts and must learn to negotiate deep racial divides among both students and faculty. She also faces an age-old Native American plague – alcohol. Back on the reservation, Erin, fed up with her parents’ disapproval sneaks away from her home and falls in with unscrupulous band members. who force her to cross the reservation border and deliver drugs. After she delivers the drugs, Erin steals thousands of dollars in drug money. At college Shannon rejects alcohol, and with Liz, her new non-Native and Glen, a Native American friend is fighting an academic battle to save a Native American literature program and her full college scholarship. Suddenly in the midst of Shannon’s struggle, Erin arrives on campus begging for help to escape to Canada, where she can hide from dangerous drug dealers. Will Shannon stop everything to save her sister’s life? THE HEART STAYS illuminates how the choices each sister makes are intertwined with their acceptance or denial of Osage traditions and the embrace of family and friends.
Bio
Diane Fraher is an enrolled member of Osage Nation with documented Cherokee heritage as well, who is known for writing, directing, and producing “The Heart Stays” (2024) the first nationally distributed feature film by a Native American woman. Indican Pictures released the film in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Tulsa, OK and it’s currently available on fifteen video on demand platforms. “The Heart Stays” was nominated for Best Picture at the 2024 Red Nation Film Festival.
The extensive list of awards and artist fellowships she has received for her filmmaking include: Jerome Foundation, National Geographic All Roads Film Project, New York State Council on the Arts-Individual Artist Program, Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Native Arts and Culture Foundation and Osage Nation Foundation. Diane Fraher is a Fellow in Screenwriting from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a Made in NY Women’s Film Fund Fellowship for The Heart Stays.
She is one of the principal artists who formed the New York Movement in Contemporary Native Arts, which is one of only two documented Native American arts movement in the United States. (No Reservation: New York Contemporary Native American Art Movement)
Ms. Fraher founded American Indian Artists Inc. (AMERINDA), located in New York, which is the only Native multi-arts organization of its kind in the United States for Native artists. There she has supported countless Native artists, student artists and community members.
Screening History
World Premier Cinema Village NY 2024
Awards History
Red Nation Film 2024 Best Picture Nominee
Credits
Actor - Irene Bedard
Actor - Jon Proudstar, Dejan Georgevich ASC (Cinematographer)
