Trekking through the woods by her apartment in late March, Southern Oregon Digital Media student Kazsia Connelly reminisced about making a zombie short film a few years prior, using this very forest as a backdrop for the movie, which a classmate wrote and directed and Connelly starred in for a media production class in high school.
Connelly, 18, grew up in Willamina, Oregon, a small town of under 2,500, just minutes down the road from Grand Ronde. In January, she started at Southern Oregon University in Ashland and plans to pursue a degree in digital cinema. Passionate about film and Indigenous representation, Connelly hopes that the characters she plans to play on screen and the short films she dreams of writing will be able to help break down stereotypes and inspire other young Indigenous kids.
Crawling over fallen branches and avoiding the stinging nettle plants littering the ground of the mossy forest, Connelly, a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, reflected on her dreams of becoming an actress.
“Especially as an Indigenous person, I was scared at first,” Connelly said, describing the toxicity she hears of in Hollywood. “I want to change the film industry.”
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