Chris Eyre

The large-framed and ponytailed filmmaker Chris Eyre is a member of the Cheyenne/Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma. After receiving his M.A. from N.Y.U., he was inspired by the book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie. Using much of the material from the chapter "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," Alexie adapted his novel into the screenplay for Eyre's feature-film debut, Smoke Signals. A road movie about two young men from the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation, Smoke Signals premiered at Sundance and earned much festival acclaim. After working as a producer and directing the music video "Things We Do" for the blues-rock band Indigenous, Eyre got to work on his second feature film, Skins. Based on the debut novel by poet Adrian C. Louis, Skins is a story about the Ogala Sioux reservation at the site of the infamous Wounded Knee. Starring Graham Greene, the film was highly regarded on the festival circuit and received a limited theatrical release in the U.S. Switching over to television, Eyre directed the mystery Skinwalkers, based on the book by Tony Hillerman and broadcast as part of the PBS anthology series American Mystery. In addition to sitting on the board of the Native American Producers Alliance, Eyre's next television projects included A Thief of Time and Edge of America.

~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide