A 2023 graduate of UC Santa Cruz is starring in a new movie that tells the story of a high school basketball team of rich Native American heritage in Chuska, New Mexico, striving to win a state championship.
Kauchani Bratt, who graduated from Cowell College with a philosophy degree, had no prior acting experience before “Rez Ball” – just a couple of acting classes he took at UCSC to fulfill requirements.
“I never thought I would have been a lead in any movie, let alone something that’s so near and dear to my heart,” Bratt said in a news release. “Growing up, I hadn’t really seen anything like this movie and what it means and represents. I know that if I had seen something like this when I was younger, I would have been over the moon, and it would have filled me with a lot of pride.”
Since his middle school years, Bratt played in reservation basketball tournaments – his team won the Native American Basketball Invitational. His father is Coahuiltecan; his mother is of Quechua descent – and the sibling of actor Benjamin Bratt and filmmaker Peter Bratt, who graduated from UCSC in 1986.
“In our large, tight-knit family, we’re all huge supporters of Kauchani, but there is no one more proud of him than his grandmother — our 87-year-old mom,” Peter Bratt said in a release. “Seeing her grandson on the big screen holds a special significance, not just because of how far her legacy extends from her very humble beginnings in Peru, but because it remains connected to the Indigenous identity she instilled in all of us from the beginning.”
Considering his basketball experience and his background, Kauchani Bratt decided to submit an audition tape for a role in the film after seeing a casting call for “Rez Ball” on Instagram. He competed against 5,000 submissions for just 10 roles in the film.
Navajo filmmaker Sydney Freeland directed the film, which follows the basketball team’s story after losing its star player. The movie is inspired by former New York Times reporter Michael Powell’s nonfiction book, “Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation.”
The film was released on Netflix on Friday.
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