Songs My Brothers Taught Me

Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015) is a quiet American indie drama you can watch online on iFILM. It marks the feature debut of Chloé Zhao, who would later win the Oscar for Nomadland. The setting is the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Thirteen-year-old Jashaun lives with her mother and older brother Johnny. Their father has just died. Johnny bootlegs liquor, saves up, and dreams of leaving for Los Angeles with his girlfriend — but going means leaving his little sister behind in a place worn down by poverty and drink. Zhao shot on location with locals playing versions of themselves; John Reddy and Jashaun St. John carry the film without a trace of acting-school polish.

There's no rescue arc, no tidy resolution. The camera just watches two siblings pull in opposite directions while both ache for the same thing — home. Spare, patient, deeply rooted in a place rarely filmed from the inside. Stream Songs My Brothers Taught Me online on iFILM.