Sterlin Harjo, an award-winning filmmaker and creator of the Emmy-nominated series “Reservation Dogs,” will serve as a distinguished visiting artist and affiliate faculty member in The University of Tulsa’s Department of Film Studies through 2026. The university announced the exciting faculty addition Wednesday.
“The thing I was missing as a student was hearing from someone that was an actual working filmmaker in the industry. That would’ve been helpful to me. My goal is to inspire, to go deeper than technical questions, starting with ‘why do you want to tell stories’?” Harjo said.
A 2024 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, also known as the Genius Grant, Harjo co-wrote the film “Rez Ball,” which was released on Netflix in September. He will work directly with undergraduate students, according to Blaine Greteman, dean of UTulsa’s Kendall College of Arts & Sciences.
“This is an amazing opportunity for our students to work with a MacArthur genius at the height of his creative powers,” Greteman said, “and it helps exemplify UTulsa’s important role in the city’s increasingly vibrant film industry.”
As a distinguished visiting artist, Harjo will conduct master classes with UTulsa film students. Topics include pitching, writing, and developing a network show, as well as related areas such as casting, directing, and producing. In addition, he will invite students to spend a day on the set of his new original show, “The Sensitive Kind,” starring Ethan Hawke. As part of his campus role, the Golden Globe nominee will use state-of-the-art university facilities such as Lorton Performance Center and Tyrrell Hall for screenings and other events.
“Reservation Dogs” won a Peabody Award, Television Academy Honors Award, and Independent Spirit Award. It was an American Film Institute Awards honoree and Golden Globe nominee and won Best Breakthrough Series (shortform) at the 2021 Gotham Awards.
Harjo has created and directed five feature films. His first, “Four Sheets to the Wind,” premiered at Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in 2007 and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. His feature documentary, “This May Be the Last Time,” premiered at Sundance in 2014.
An Oklahoma native, Harjo (Seminole/Muscogee) wrote and directed three additional feature-length films: “Barking Water” (2009), “Mekko” (2015), and “Love and Fury” (2020). His projects have been shown at numerous film festivals, including Sundance, Toronto International Film Festival, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Seattle Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, and deadCenter Film Festival in Oklahoma City.
A friend of the film studies program, Harjo served as the fall 2022 University of Tulsa Presidential Lecture Series speaker and hosted UTulsa students at his studio last November for a tour and discussion.
“Sterlin, of course, is incredibly talented, but what I also appreciate is his deep appreciation for Tulsa – its flaws, its quirks, everything that makes it unique,” said Jeff Van Hanken, chair of UTulsa’s Department of Film Studies. “I’ve known him for 20 years, and in some ways, I feel like he’s just scratching the surface. There’s so much more to come, and I’m excited to see how his involvement inspires the next generation of storytellers.”