TULSA \u2013 Cherokee filmmaker Jeremy Charles will soon have his name set in concrete outside a storied movie theater with three other Oklahomans honored by the Circle Cinema for work in film and the arts.<\/p>\n
Circle Cinema recently announced that Charles, founder of Tulsa-based, Cherokee-owned Pursuit Films, is among those selected to the 2026 class of the theater\u2019s Walk of Fame. He will be inducted with actress and former Miss USA Olivia Jordan and two posthumous inductees: composer Ralph Blane and cinematographer Lucien Ballard, also of Cherokee descent.<\/p>\n
Charles has run his studio adjacent to the Circle for about 15 years but was unsure how he came to be considered. He did mention his lengthy history with those who keep the theater running.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve gotten to know all of them very well over the years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It has been a big year for Charles. His most recent documentary, \u201cReturn of the Sacred Red Rock,\u201d took Best Documentary Jury Award at the Circle Cinema Film Festival. The film recounts the Kaw Nation\u2019s years-long effort to reclaim In’zh\u00faje wax\u00f3be, a 28-ton sacred quartzite boulder taken from along the Kansas River in the 19th century, and return it from Lawrence, Kansas, to Allegawaho Memorial Heritage Park in Council Grove.<\/p>\n
Charles was attracted to the project through his studio\u2019s relationship with the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City, where Pursuit Films designed exhibits and worked with former executive director James Pepper Henry, a Kaw Nation citizen who helped effect the stone\u2019s return.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe trusted us from our previous work with the First Americans Museum and kind of brought us on board to do that,\u201d Charles said.<\/p>\n
Pursuit Films, founded by Charles in 2014, has established a reputation for telling Indigenous stories from an inside perspective. He was co-creator of \u201cOsiyo, Voices of the Cherokee People,\u201d which has now amassed more than 30 regional Emmys \u2013 including his Best Director honor in 2017. Other credits include the Cherokee-language animated series \u201cInage\u2019i\u201d and a Cherokee-language contemporary music album.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vision was always to celebrate Cherokee people and hand them the microphone,\u201d Charles told Circle Cinema. \u201cIn Indian Country it\u2019s still rare for tribes to tell their own stories, and that\u2019s what gets me out of bed every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charles said proximate recognition carries a distinct significance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis feels a little bit different to be seen by the local community for the work we\u2019ve been doing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt feels really good to be recognized by Tulsa.\u201d<\/p>\n
He mentioned his mother, his Cherokee heritage and his children when he pondered the medallion being set in the sidewalk.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think about my mom, and I think about the Cherokee people, and I think about my kids and how they\u2019ll be able to go there long after I\u2019m gone and see my name,\u201d Charles said. \u201cThere\u2019s a special kind of feeling about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in Oologah and an alumnus of Oklahoma State University, Charles started as a writer and photographer before shifting to filmmaking in 2014. His years working with the CN molded what he sees as his responsibilities behind the lens.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really just changed my worldview about uplifting Indigenous voices into the mainstream and giving Native people the microphone to tell their own stories,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really has a huge effect on the way people see themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The induction ceremony is July 15 \u2013 the opening day of the Circle Cinema Film Festival \u2013 with a reception at 6 p.m. followed by the ceremony at 7:30. The public unveiling of the new medallions follows outside the theater.<\/p>\n
Attendees will have several chances to see \u201cReturn of the Sacred Red Rock.\u201d The film premieres July 17 at 7 p.m. in Screen 2, followed by a Q&A and reception, with additional showings on July 20, at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. in Screen 2 and at 2 p.m. in Screen 3.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.cherokeephoenix.org \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TULSA \u2013 Cherokee filmmaker Jeremy Charles will soon have his name set in concrete outside a storied movie theater with three other Oklahomans honored by the Circle Cinema for work in film and the arts. Circle Cinema recently announced that Charles, founder of Tulsa-based, Cherokee-owned Pursuit Films, is among those selected to the 2026 class […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2476922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[341174,341173,487474,462547,21799,317163,341177,487475,306904,462548],"class_list":["post-2476921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-cherokee","tag-cherokee-nation","tag-circle-cinema","tag-demographics-of-oklahoma","tag-film","tag-film-festival","tag-indigenous-peoples-of-north-america","tag-kaw-people","tag-oklahoma","tag-society-of-oklahoma"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Charles-to-join-Circle-Cinema-Walk-of-Fame-Entertainment.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2476921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2476924,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476921\/revisions\/2476924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2476922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2476921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2476921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2476921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}