Editorial Choices and Representation in 'Chambers'

photo source: buzzfeed.com



     Is it just me, or is there like, so much good stuff on Netflix right now? At times, I'll begin scrolling through, looking for a show or movie, and find nothing that interests me. Other times, it's hard to make a selection due to all the good options. This weekend, I made note of Knock Down the House (the documentary about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and several other women who made history during the mid-term elections of 2018), Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (the Sundance Film Festival Favorite that caused quite a stir earlier this year) and Dead to Me (the dark comedy television series that my mom keeps asking if I've seen, given our similar tastes). However, last weekend the only thing that really vied for my attention on Netflix was its new original series Chambers. 
    Chambers landed the most prominent spot on the site (if you have Netflix, you know the new trailer that starts playing as soon as you pull up the site? Is there a name for that?). Judging from the trailer I could tell it was eerie. Then I read the description (a girl who receives a heart transplant and then starts experiencing strange phenomena relating to the person whose heart she received). I love movies and series that are creepy, mysterious, suspenseful etc, so I decided to give this one a shot, and have finished most of the series in a week's time. Not recognizing the show's lead, I did a little Googling and found out her name is Sivan Alyra Rose. I watched a few of her recent interviews regarding the show and learned that she is an Apache woman from Arizona.
     In her interview for Mic Media, Rose discusses being the first Native American woman to lead a television series, and how much work went into putting out a more accurate portrayal of Native American culture in 2019, versus Hollywood stereotypes regarding clothing, behavior and the lack of depth given to Native American characters. I highly recommend checking out the full interview here. She also explains that having grown up on a reservation riddled with issues such as economic disparity and mental health crises, seeing Native characters having their stories told in the media would have made "goals and dreams feel a lot more tangible, and a lot more realistic to pursue."
     Rose hopes to see Native representation continue to grow in entertainment, but Chambers is definitely an exciting step in the right direction. We see facets of Native culture within the main protagonist Sasha's story, but we also see her dressing the way any other teenager might dress, having interests like helping her boyfriend practice for track and aspiring to open a nail salon with her friend and struggles that a broader population can relate to, such as attending a school with a different socioeconomic group than she's used to. Through this lens we can see and learn about someone who might be different than us, but we can also find ways in which we relate to them, both of which are important in order for us to develop deeper understandings and relationships with the world around us and the people within it.