Osage Nation costume consultant Julia O’Keefe and costume designer Jacqueline West spoke during panel for Marin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles to discuss their dedication to presenting an authentic representation of the Osage Nation in the film.
West did extensive, detailed research in order to create the costume for the films. Her research started at home where she already has a library full with information on Native American cultures from previous work she has done. However, her work had not extended to the Osage Nation until Killers of the Flower Moon.
Because of this new experience, she took her research to the next level, utilizing the Carnegie library in her town of Deadwood, South Dakota. With this new research, she was able to find home videos made by the Osage people from the 1920s, which also happens to be when the film is set. Taking the price of this technology during this time period, finding these home videos was stunning and by West’s account, the price of producing such a video at the time would have cost $1,800 per minute.
West also relied on O’Keefe for her personal expertise as a member of the Osage Nation. They also made sure to consult with and hire many Osage artists for the film. As O’Keefe noted, “If you really want authentic stories told, then you need to go into the artisans of any nation, not just ours, any nation…Because those are some of the best researchers and storytellers of their next piece of art that they’re producing.”
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