Jeri Arredondo Movies

Sterlin Harjo's gentle coming-of-age drama Four Sheets to the Wind opens in the hamlet of Holdenville, Oklahoma, where a young Native American man, Cufe Smallhill (Cody Lightning of Smoke Signals), discovers his father's dead body. His dad's last wish, it seems, was to be buried in the local pond. Cufe fulfills this request, packs his bags, and heads off to the metropolis of Tulsa, where he sets about building a new life for himself. Above and beyond its dramatic, narrative and aesthetic strengths, Harjo's film retains enormous sociocultural interest as one of the few films by, about, and starring American Indians - a rare feature to concern itself with contemporary Indian lifestyles in lieu of dramatizing Native American histories. Tamara Podemski co-stars as Cufe's sister Miri. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Hank Kirk (Kevin Anderson) is a Caucasian man who objects to his half-Cherokee son Hunter's (James Duval) tendency to believe the stories of his Native American grandfather. Hunter is a hemophiliac, which makes it difficult (and dangerous) for him to take part in the same outdoor activities that dominate his father's life, especially as his mother, Maggie (Jeri Arredondo), worries about her son and tries to keep him away from danger. As Hunter grows older, he feels the need to prove himself to his father despite his medical condition, but his father objects to the Cherokee method of hunting and insists that the boy hunt like a white man, by sitting by the side of the road with a gun and waiting for game to appear. When Hunter goes deer hunting with Hank for the first time, he mistakenly bags a doe instead of a buck -- a tremendous embarrassment for both Hunter and Hank, because the animal has no antlers to show off and thus is not considered a great catch. Humiliated, Hunter seeks the advice of his grandfather, Marvin Fishinghawk (Gordon Tootoosis), and finds love for the first time with a girl his age. The Doe Boy was the first feature film from writer and director Randy Redroad, which was based on his own experiences growing up in a Native American family; the film was shown in competition at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Superb black-and-white photography highlights this independent drama. John Lee (Peter Alexander) is the son of a Chinese-American father and a French mother, living in California shortly after World War II. John's grandfather was a Chinese laborer brought to America to help lay tracks for the Continental railroad, and John has inherited an obsessive love of trains. When John discovers that the short-line railroad that runs from Merced, California, to the Yosemite Valley is soon to be shut down, he persuades his father to back him as he takes over the line and attempts to restore it. John hires two experienced railroad men to help him run his new railway: conductor Robinson (Henry Gibson and traffic manager Skeeter (Michael Stipe). As he tries to put the Yosemite Valley Railroad back on its feet, he becomes romantically involved with a beautiful park ranger (Jeri Arredondo) and exchanges subtle flirtations with both Skeeter and his sister Wendy (Diana Larkin). However, his all-consuming interest in the railroad prevents these relationships from going anywhere, and his family begins to lose patience with him as he digs himself deeper into a business that seems doomed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Playwright Sam Shepard wrote and directed this bizarre combination of western film revisionism and Greek tragedy. Silent Tongue (Tantoo Cardinal) is a mute Kiowa who is raped by Eamon McCree (Alan Bates), the owner of the Kickapoo Traveling Medicine Show. Eamon attempts to make up for his crime by marrying her, hoping for forgiveness. Instead, Silent Tongue enacts a bitter retribution through her two daughters, Awbonnie (Sheila Tousey) and Velada (Jeri Arredondo). Awbonnie, as the film begins, has already died, but her grieving husband Talbot (River Phoenix) refuses to let her go, dragging around her corpse. To assuage Talbot, his father Prescott (Richard Harris) sets out to purchase Velada from Eamon, thinking that only Awbonnie's sister can replace her in Talbot's eyes. But Velada's half-brother Reeves (Dermot Mulroney) protests the attempted transaction. As a result, Prescott kidnaps Velada and flees, with not only Reeves and Eamon chasing him, but also Awbonnie's ghost. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In his film debut, novice director John Dahl (who would later make The Last Seduction), weaves a quirky tale of love, murder and deception. Jack Andrews (Val Kilmer), a seedy private detective is hired by Fay Forrester (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer), to help her fake her own death in a clever scheme to escape from her mob pursuers, whom she double-crossed stealing money she had been sent to pick up, and are now intent on killing her. There then ensues a series of complicated plot-twists, double-crosses and surprises as Fay and Jack race each other to escape the mobsters, who have found them, and to get the money before the other does. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide