Rez Metal (2021)

When Kyle Felter, the lead singer of I Don't Konform sent out a demo album to Flemming Rasmussen, the Grammy Award-winner producer of Metallica, they never imagined themselves a few months later rehearsing with Rasmussen inside a hot hogan on a Navajo reservation before recording their debut album at the iconic Sweet Silence Studio in Denmark. While following I Don't Konform's fairy tale journey, our documentary REZ METAL, tells the larger compelling story of the heavy metal scene on Navajo reservations where many youths have grown disaffected as a result of endemic poverty, high rate of suicides, and domestic violence. By exploring different metal bands and their perspectives on music and contemporary life, this documentary will capture the universality of their experience and illustrate the many ways in which heavy metal music engages disenfranchised Navajo youth in constructive anger to effect positive change as well as to cope with personal tragedy.