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Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘I want to change the film industry'
Nika Bartoo-SmithUnderscore Native News + ICT Editor's note: This story is the latest installment in our Youth Profiles series. You can read past stories in the series here, and stay tuned for more in the future. Trekking through the woods by her apartment in late March, 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.' Her dream role would be to play Korra, the main character in the animated series 'The Legend of Korra,' a spinoff from the popular show 'Avatar: The Last Airbender.' In 2024, Netflix released a live-action version of 'Avatar: The Last Airbender.' Connelly loved the series and felt particularly inspired by the Indigenous woman who played the character Katara, a young Mohawk actress named Kiawentiio. 'One of the main reasons why I'm an actor is because I'm an Indigenous woman, and there's not lots of Indigenous people in films or TV shows or media in general,' Connelly said. 'I remember when I was a kid, whenever I saw a person of color [on screen], I was like, 'That's so cool. That's me.'' Connelly remembers many summers spent at the annual powwow in Grand Ronde. But, although she lived close, she describes herself as growing up a bit disconnected from culture, and is seeking to rekindle that connection now. 'I wasn't raised in my culture,' Connelly said. 'Now that I am a young adult, I don't want my kids to be raised separated from culture. Reconnecting with my culture has just been a relief and made me at peace.' Connelly graduated from Willamina High School last year and moved to Grand Ronde in December. She now splits her time between her apartment in Grand Ronde and the dorms at Southern Oregon University in Ashland. Connelly describes a mixed experience in the Willamina School District, including seeing a lot of racism and sexism in school. By high school, she began to develop her voice as an advocate for women and Indigenous people. Now, that means tapping into her creative voice through poetry and the characters she hopes to both portray and write. '[Indigneous people], we're powerful. We have gone through so much throughout decades and hundreds of thousands of years,' Connelly said. 'And we are still here. And that is saying so much.' Connelly first developed an interest in acting in middle school. 'In eighth grade, I took drama class and I just fell in love with acting,' Connelly said, remembering being in her first play that year called 'The Wedding.' The next year she attended Willamina High School, which has an enrollment of about 300. As a freshman, Connelly took a media production class with Ryan Lewis, the school's performing arts director. She continued to take his classes all throughout high school, acting in a few short films. In her junior year media production class, the students were assigned basic script writing, but Connelly went above and beyond. She wrote, produced and starred in a 25-minute film titled 'Maryona Spirit of Wildwood.' In the film, Connelly plays the spirit of a young woman named Maryona who has come back to haunt the Wildwood hotel, where she died. 'She took on a leadership role in that she wrote out a script and she proposed the idea of shooting a film that she wrote,' Lewis said. 'I respect her work ethic and her follow through because she does not fail to deliver. And that's fairly uncommon with a kid that age.' That year, the entire class ended up working on the film together. Connelly helped organize a bake sale at the local Wildwood hotel and the class raised $800 in one day to go toward production costs, according to Lewis. The class spent many weeks working on the film, shooting at multiple locations, including the Grand Ronde Tribal Police Station, the Wildwood Hotel and a local pond. 'Going into it, we didn't really know what to expect,' said Taylor Brooks, who starred in the film and is now Connelly's boyfriend. 'It turned from this mini project into something special that really brought the whole class together.' As Connelly pursues her dreams of being both behind the camera and on screen, she also hopes to continue to dedicate attention to other creative outlets. Connelly is a drummer and Brooks is also a musician, primarily playing electric bass. They hope to one day play in a band together. Connelly is also a writer, using poetry as a space to help process her emotions. In her first term at Southern Oregon University, Connelly has already begun to dive into theater classes with an introduction to acting class, a script analysis class and a carpentry class. As she thinks about her future career, both behind the scenes and on screen, she is determined to create films that portray strong, Indigenous women characters. This story is co-published by and , a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest. Funding is provided in part by Meyer Memorial Trust. Our stories are worth telling. Our stories are worth sharing. Our stories are worth your support. Contribute $5 or $10 today to help ICT carry out its critical mission. Sign up for ICT's free newsletter.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Netflix releases bloopers from Avatar: The Last Airbender and says Season 2 production is underway
Netflix dropped a blooper reel this weekend from the first season of its live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender show, giving fans a look at some cute behind the scenes antics while they wait for the next season. The first season was released a year ago, and Netflix announced shortly after that the show had been renewed for two more. There's no release date yet for the new episodes, but the streaming service said on Saturday that production for the second season is underway. The third season will be its last. News surrounding Avatar: The Last Airbender has been surprisingly plentiful this week. On top of the updates from Netflix, Deadline reported that there's a new animated series on the way that'll pick up after the events of The Legend of Korra. That series will be called Avatar: Seven Havens. And, Magic: The Gathering announced an Avatar crossover coming out in November.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Netflix releases bloopers from Avatar: The Last Airbender and says Season 2 production is underway
Netflix dropped a blooper reel this weekend from the first season of its live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender show, giving fans a look at some cute behind the scenes antics while they wait for the next season. The first season was released a year ago, and Netflix announced shortly after that the show had been renewed for two more. There's no release date yet for the new episodes, but the streaming service said on Saturday that production for the second season is underway. The third season will be its last. It's been 1 year since the release of Avatar: The Last Airbender, so here's the official blooper reel to celebrate! — Netflix (@netflix) February 22, 2025 News surrounding Avatar: The Last Airbender has been surprisingly plentiful this week. On top of the updates from Netflix, Deadline reported that there's a new animated series on the way that'll pick up after the events of The Legend of Korra. That series will be called Avatar: Seven Havens. And, Magic: The Gathering announced an Avatar crossover coming out in November.
Express Tribune
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Nickelodeon Announces Avatar: Seven Havens as Post-Korra Series
Nickelodeon and Avatar Studios have officially announced Avatar: Seven Havens, a brand-new 2D animated series set after The Legend of Korra. The upcoming show will follow a young Earthbender who discovers she is the next Avatar in a world devastated by a cataclysmic event. According to Nickelodeon's press release, this new Avatar series will explore a darker era where the Avatar is seen not as a savior, but as a harbinger of destruction. Hunted by both humans and spirits, the young Earthbender must unravel her origins alongside her long-lost twin to save the Seven Havens, civilization's last hope. Creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who originally developed Avatar: The Last Airbender, expressed their excitement: "When we created the original series, we never imagined we'd still be expanding the world decades later. This new incarnation of the Avatarverse is full of fantasy, mystery, and a whole new cast of amazing characters." The series will span 26 episodes, split into two seasons of 13 episodes each. DiMartino and Konietzko are co-creating the show alongside executive producers Ethan Spaulding and Sehaj Sethi. This marks Avatar Studios' first mainline TV series, alongside their upcoming Aang-centered animated movie, set for a January 30, 2026 theatrical release. In celebration of Avatar's 20th anniversary, Nickelodeon also announced new books, comics, concerts, toys, and a Roblox game.
