RPH vs. Sinners (2025) w/ Jodi Byrd (Part 2)
**Producer’s note: This is the second half of a two-part episode. Make sure you check out the first part!*
RPH is back! Indigenous scholar Jodi Byrd joins co-hosts Melanie Yazzie and Elena Ortiz for another episode on Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (2025)
Empower our work:
GoFundMe:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content
Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter:
https://www.therednation.org/
@fll7181
May 9, 2026 at 5:41 pm
I saw this movie thinking southern vampires and it added some unique voices and themes. the moment I saw the Indigenous vampire hunters, that gave me pause because I tend to roll my eyes at this kind of story mechanism. I understand the panel feeling Indigeneity was excluded in this story, but I was relieved it was just the hunters that were featured. Because I was low-key expecting a S King style of incorporating Indigenous characters. And there are times that if you don't know something, or know someone to add to the story that is relevant and thoughtful, then the best thing is to just say you don't know and don't try. Because when you try, it leads to the theme of "led to hell by good intentions." I could go on. Great video
@allenjohnson4938
May 9, 2026 at 5:41 pm
10min in and im wondering why this story about Black folks HAS to Bare the responsibility of educating the masses about indigenous people or their plight specifically because it was popular and alluded to in film. What made it popular was NOT because it was a history lesson but 24 hours revolving around Smoke and Stacks business ventures and what will stop them. Could the movie have started with Remick potentially violating the Choctaw and his subsequent capture and escape…sure. But then it centers the white protagonist instead of the Main characters so….all your feelings cant be projected onto this project. Not for opening the Can of Worms so that future projects that can be made to include your topics of choice. Not gonna say im the most knowledgeable on native lore, customs or movies depicting them but you can point me towardthe movies with Native Vampire hunters
@Trekkierthanthou
May 9, 2026 at 5:41 pm
Sin as appropriation and coerced assimilation? Sammy invokes Christian prayer in the final confrontation with Remmick… who joins and continues the prayer while 'baptizing' Sammy in the water. Unclear whether in that moment Sammy sees (or audience is supposed to see) Christianity (maybe White Christianity ™️) as impotent or false.
By contrast, the film shows Choctaw ability to powerfully confront a being like Remmick (who may have first tried to seize connection to his own ancestors through the Choctaw by harkening to their act of anti-colonial solidarity towards the Irish) as well as the effectiveness of Annie's West African knowledge and tradition (strategic: identifying the dangerous entity, weaponizing pickled garlic liquid, waiting for sunrise, stake to heart; spiritual: Smoke/Annie/child reunion). Sammy's flashbacks to Remmick while in his pastor father embrace seem to imply an unsavory parallel between Remmick's and the pastor's demands that leads Sammy to go his own way.
@bwhitedpencilbox889
May 9, 2026 at 5:41 pm
Great episode! I loved sinners, but it’s really a shame that the indigenous spirits and land didn’t get their place. I wish everyone inspired by sinners could hear your critique because those of us who come after Coogler, can build on what he did to make the next wave of art more rooted and revolutionary. I’m excited for the upcoming conversations on indigenous futures in fiction!
@montueswedthursfri
May 9, 2026 at 5:41 pm
looking forward to listening – and a heads up you forgot to put "1" in the parenthesis after Part 🙂
Comments are closed.