June ROSE: An American Chronicle
“She Speaks for Her Clan” by Dorothy Sullivan
Inspired by my mother’s life and based around historical events in late 1960s San Francisco and the Cherokee Nation, feminist TV family drama JUNE ROSE: AN AMERICAN CHRONICLE is about a restless housewife and mother of three teenagers who belatedly discovers her American Indian heritage then defies her conservative husband to join the contemporary Red Power and Women’s movements in their fights for justice.
With themes of American narratives, identity, self-determination, and intergenerational trauma, the series, with historical flashbacks, is told from the point of view of June Rose, a “passing” woman, as she, her family—and the audience—unravel and react to the true chronicles of Native America during the explosive Sixties and Seventies. My intention with the JUNE ROSE series is to also travel forward into our contemporary era, with June as the matriarch of her political- and social justice-focused mixed-race family.
Finalist, The Indigenous list 2022
This year, Indigenous List selectees will have the opportunity to meet with four critically acclaimed Indigenous creatives who hold development deals at major studios:
Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne/Mescalero Apache), former Director, Sundance Indigenous program and Producer, has a first-look deal at Amazon Studios;
Michael Greyeyes (Nêhiyaw, Plains Cree) a critically acclaimed actor, most recently in Wild Indian, who has a first-look deal at Blumhouse;
Sierra Teller Ornelas (Navajo/Latinx), the showrunner/co-creator of Rutherford Falls, who has a development deal at Universal TV;
Sterlin Harjo (Seminole Creek/Muskogee), showrunner/co-creator of Reservation Dogs, who has an overall deal at FX Productions.
Quarterfinalist, The Script Lab TV Pilot 2021
Quarterfinalist, Final Draft Big Break 2020
Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship 2019
A limited TV series by Kathryn Machi.
Learn more here.
“The premise of the JUNE ROSE pilot breathes fresh life into the concept of a period piece revolving around a ‘60s housewife. Less Betty Draper and more Betty Friedan, the protagonist is one television has never seen before…the characters populating this world are fascinating and original…a complex, nuanced, and altogether captivating series.”
