The Idaho native also served as an executive producer for Outer Range.
If you refer to Heather Rae as hailing from flyover country, don’t be surprised if she takes that as a compliment. Although she’s active in film and television, with Fancy Dance and Outer Range among her recent credits as a producer, her heart remains fixed in the heartland.
“I identify as an Idahoan, first and foremost,” she told C&I. “Although I’ve had to work in and out of Los Angeles for years, when anyone ever asks where I’m from, I say ‘I’m from Idaho.’
“I also identify as a person from the American West, and feel very strongly about western values and western culture. I have always felt a loyalty to the land, and that is a principle that carries me.”
So far, that principle has carried her impressively far from her humble beginnings. Rae spent her childhood in central mountain Idaho, where her family has lived for generations. “My father was a working cowboy for many years,” she said. “He was a mule packer. He then went on at some point in time to become a milliner. And once his cowboy days were over, he became a hat maker.”
During her upbringing in the ‘70s, she spent many years with no electricity, running water or TV, and experienced a childhood informed by her natural surroundings. “The nearest movie theater was about 75 miles away,” Rae said. “So it was always a big deal just to see a movie.”
“Have any of you ever looked a bear in the eye? Because I have.” — Heather Rae
While still in high school, however, Rae landed an improbable opportunity to expand her horizons. “It may sound crazy,” she said, “but there are these modeling agencies that go to places like Idaho and Ohio, presumably looking for young women from the heartland. I was actually scouted by somebody from Elite Models, and that took me to New York. And then to Japan.
“For me, what was really important about this magical twist is that that’s what showed me the world. Because at that point in time, I’d never really traveled. I’d been to rodeos and powwows in Montana, or other places here and there, but I had never actually really traveled that much in my growing-up years. Suddenly, I saw that there was an entire world out there.”
Much to her surprise, Rae found herself comfortable and confident in her new surroundings.
“It’s a funny thing about coming from a state like Idaho,” she said. “I can recall being in New York City when I was 15 or 16 years old, and there was a group of peers that were sort of teasing me about coming from Idaho and now being in the big city. Like, was it scary for me? I remember I had this moment when looked at them and I said, ‘Have any of you ever looked a bear in the eye? Because I have.’
“See, New York City wasn’t scary to me. I had seen so many other things that actually are scary. So it’s an interesting thing, the way people interpret a rural life.”
Or misidentify a state.
“People often confuse Idaho with Iowa or Ohio. More often than you can imagine. It’s kind of crazy. And then there was the time I brought my dad and my Uncle Fred to New York City, when I had a film that was playing at the Tribeca Film Festival. These are real Idaho Cowboys. And I kid you not, we would walk the streets and people would be yelling out, ‘Hey, Texas!’ Just because of their hats and boots and big buckles. It was really quite an experience.”
“Lily Gladstone is amazing,” Rae said. “Everything that she appears to be, as far as being talented, gracious, grounded — she is all of those things.”
After she returned to the United States following her modeling stint in Japan, Rae studied cultural anthropology and creative writing at Boise State, where she discovered the storytelling power of the school’s video classes, and expanded on her teenage interest in photography. She transferred to Evergreen State College in Washington, graduating with degrees in cinema and multicultural studies.
In the midst of her ascent as a filmmaker, working in various capacities on indie movies, Rae spent six years with the Sundance Institute, subsequently serving as a Sundance trustee, a Sundance Festival juror and, currently, an advisor. It was at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival that she premiered her first effort as a documentary director: Trudell, an admiring cinematic portrait of Native American activist and poet John Trudell that featured on-camera interviews with such notables as Robert Redford, Val Kilmer and Sam Shepard.
Throughout her Sundance connection, Rae said, “I learned so much about storytelling, and supporting the voices of emerging talent.” She put that knowledge to good use while serving as a producer for such projects by first-time feature filmmakers as Frozen River (2008), Courtney Hunt’s Oscar-nominated drama starring Melissa Leo as a desperately cash-strapped single mother; I Believe in Unicorns (2014), Leah Meyerhoff’s critically acclaimed indie about a young girl (Natalia Dyer of Stranger Things) who tries to make her dreams come true, only to discover how quickly dreams can turn into nightmares; and Once Upon a River (2019), Haroula Rose’s award-winning adaptation of Bonnie Jo Campell’s novel about a Native American girl’s search for her estranged mother after her father is killed in a tragic accident.
More recently, Rae served as an executive producer for Outer Range, the sci-fi neo-Western series starring C&I cover star Josh Brolin that recently concluded a two-season run on Prime Video; and as a producer for Fancy Dance, the well-received drama directed by Erica Tremblay and starring Lily Gladstone now available for streaming on Apple TV+.
“Lily Gladstone is amazing,” Rae said. “Everything that she appears to be, as far as being talented, gracious, grounded — she is all of those things.”
“Actually, I worked on one of the very first films that she was in, Winter in the Blood,” the 2013 drama based on the same-titled novel by Native American Montana author James Welch and starring Chaske Spencer. “And I can recall at that point in time thinking, ‘This person is so talented and has something so magical.’ Lily draws from a very deep well, and there is such a quiet strength. Still waters run deep. She just has this power to her. It comes through in her work.
“And I think for all of us at large, witnessing her navigate what it is to do an Oscars campaign [for Killers of the Flower Moon] — look, I have supported films in the past while doing that, and let me tell you, that work is no joke. And it was wonderful to see her do it with such grace, such graciousness, and to be so inclusive. She did so many incredible collaborations with Indigenous artists and designers, and bringing everyone together. When that door opened, she brought as many people through it with her as she possibly could. I think of Lily as someone who just has an extraordinary generosity of spirit.”
Rae has long championed the work of Indigenous artists. She served as a founding partner for the social justice organization IllumiNative, where she helped create its Indigenous Producers Fellowship with Netflix as well as an Indigenous Director Shadowing Program with Amazon Studios.
Mountain Daughter, the new company she created with her daughter, actress Johnny Sequoyah, currently is designing a development program called The Rural Initiative to support voices from the non-urban areas of America and the world. Rae says it’s aimed at enabling “those who have the most challenges in terms of access. Whether it be a farm kid from Louisiana, a reservation kid, or a ranch girl from Nevada. We’re are looking to support the people and voices of the land.”
Including, of course, the people from Flyover Country.
Photography: Kai Brown.
