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Touch the sky
Pigasus Pictures to film in Indiana By Trisha Lee trrlee@iusb.edu
ing, Harrison, 22, was shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene. Harrison and Mack were friends. “That’s why when I scored I put my hand up in the air,” Mack said. “Just to let my bro know I’m living out the dream he wanted me to.”
Indiana is famous for a lot of things: corn, basketball, limestone, a certain 500-lap race and a nickname for its residents with no origin story. Something that might not come to mind when imagining the Hoosier state is a thriving film industry. Pigasus Pictures is seeking to change that. After the premiere of its first film, "The Good Catholic," the Pigasus Pictures team set out to produce six more films over the next three years. Each story will take place in Indiana, starting with its current project, "Ms. White Light." Filming for "Ms. White Light" started in late October and is expected to take about a month. Scenes will be shot all over Bloomington. "The Good Catholic" was also shot and produced in Bloomington. After the Bloomington premiere, CEO Zachary Spicer, who played a lead role in the film, and COO John Armstrong, toured the state of Indiana to premiere the film and lead talk backs with local audiences. Spicer said filming in Bloomington is easy because it is an artscentered town, and the city has been really helpful with providing street closures, parking and security. However, one of the biggest challenges Pigasus Pictures has faced is that Indiana offers no tax incentives for local film production. In states with an incentive, filmmakers receive tax credits to offset certain production costs. Despite popular films such as "Rudy" and "Breaking Away" having been made in the state, proposed legislation to create such an incentive has never become law. To combat this problem while forming strong bonds with community members, Pigasus Pictures relies on local businesses for many of its resources. For "The Good Catholic," Community Ford Lincoln of Bloomington donated vehicles for production use, the restaurant Quaff ON! donated meals and Fourwinds Lakeside Inn & Marina gave the production team discounted hotel rooms. All the businesses that donated were included in the credits and many business owners hosted or attended local film premieres, so the relationships were mutually beneficial, Spicer said.
SEE TAYSIR, PAGE 5
SEE PIGASUS, PAGE 5
TY VINSON | IDS
Redshirt freshman wide receiver Taysir Mack salutes the sky after scoring the game’s first touchdown for IU against Charleston Southern on Oct. 7. Mack has become a consistent presence at wide receiver for IU this season after injuries to three other wide receivers.
Wide receiver Taysir Mack has made the most of his new reality By Cameron Drummond | cpdrummo@iu.edu | @cdrummond97
T
he celebrations were the same. Following each of Taysir Mack’s two touchdowns against Charleston Southern on Oct. 7, the IU redshirt freshman wide receiver smacked his chest twice, kissed his fist and pointed to the sky. It was a message meant for the heavens and a reminder of the reality Mack left
behind when he came to Bloomington from Brooklyn, New York, one year ago. * * * Darren Harrison was shot and killed just after 5 p.m. Feb. 5, 2017, at East 84th Street in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn. The victim of a double shoot-
Sharing heritage: Student to record history By Christine Stephenson cistephe@iu.edu | @cistephenson23
This story is part of a series of profiles of students of Native American heritage at IU. This series is meant to celebrate Native American Heritage Month, which is dedicated to sharing the experiences of contemporary native culture, not just the history. Native American heritage is such an integral part of graduate student Lydia Curliss’s identity that she is pursuing her education because of it. But this was not always the case. “For a long time, my native identity wasn’t a priority for me,” she said. “I kind of rebelled against it for a while because I didn’t know what being native meant to me.” Pursuing a dual degree in library and information sciences, Curliss plans to use her education to work with her tribal chiefs to create digital documentation of her tribe’s history. It's a difficult task considering native history is told through media like song, dance and spoken word, but Curliss said she is determined to give back to the community that raised her. “You can’t just take and take. You have to give back,” she said. “My native community has given me so many opportunities, they’ve put so much into me.” Curliss grew up in Massachusetts where she is a member of the Nipmuc tribe. The name stems from the word Nippenet, which means “the freshwater pond place” because their land is filled with rivers and
ROSE BYTHROW | IDS
Lydia Curliss is a third year master's student in library and information sciences. She is from Massachusetts, where she is a member of the Nipmuc nation.
ponds. Although Curliss said she could always rely on her tribe for support, she resisted strongly identifying with her native culture until she was an adult. “I gradually figured out my identity on my own terms,” she said. “When you’re young, you understand what you can identify as, but you don’t understand the deeper meaning behind it.”
For a while she was hesitant to learn about her culture because she did not want to bear the responsibilities it held, she said. “I realized that there are certain things I’d have to be ready to talk about,” she said. “You don’t want to constantly be asked questions and address microaggressions, but you have to be ready for that.” One of the microaggressions Curliss said she experiences is when
people assume she is not native because she does not look like a stereotypical native person. After several years, Curliss said she decided to take the leap and learn more about her heritage so she could be a role model for her siblings. If she could be comfortable with her heritage, she said, then she could teach her three younger siblings to do the same. Now, Curliss takes pride in learn-
ing about her culture, she said. She said she especially looks forward to learning alongside her younger sister, Keely, who is 23 years old. “We’re both at a place in our lives where we want to know about our heritage," Curliss said. "We’re ready to know." Keely said her sister has been nothing short of a role model for her and their two other siblings. “She takes care of us and wants to make sure that we have it easier than herself,” she said in a text. Keely said she and her sister constantly exchange photos, modern native art, news articles and stories with each other to share what they continue to learn about their culture. As a farmer, she learns in very different ways than Lydia does, she said, but this does not stop them from supporting each other. “We both value each other and the way we fit into our community so much,” Keely said. Along with her sister’s support, Curliss said she uses her community to overcome the obstacles, like discrimination, that come with openly expressing her culture. “One thing about native culture is that we’re resilient,” she said. “After looking at all the hardship that native people have gone through and continue to experience, there are days when it feels like too much. But you have to keep fighting because that’s the only way that change is going to happen.”