I was very moved when our Lakota language adviser, Ben Blackbear, watched the movie and said he hoped it would change the way history was taught in schools because it was telling a story his community usually didn’t get told. W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater? Sw: I’d like people to reflect on their history. After I left film school I went to watch a ceremony on the Hopi reservation and was fascinated by the sense of how ancient and spiritual the culture was in contrast to the modern America I knew in Los Angeles. I was always drawn to it and spent ages looking at the feathers and beadwork. My father worked at the Hudson’s Bay Company in London and in the reception there was a glass case with a full-size figure of a warrior dressed in an eagle headdress and a war shirt. I had always been interested in Native American history. There’s also a very spiritual aspect to the movie that drew me - the sense that the land was there before any of us and will be there after we have passed through it. This is set in that world but you hear the stories of people you don’t normally hear in those narratives - the Native American community and a strong woman. I grew up loving the epic landscape of Westerns. As soon as I read it I knew I had to make the film. In fact, this isn’t a love story in a conventional sense at all - it is the story of two oppressed people giving each other hope. W&H: What drew you to this story? Sw: My agent gave it to me because I was looking for an epic love story - something in the tradition of films like “ The English Patient,” by Anthony Minghella. Mistakenly thinking she would find freedom in the lifestyle of the Sioux Indians in contrast to the oppression women faced in New York, Wheldon becomes increasingly politicized as she discovers that Sitting Bull’s people are in danger of losing their ancestral lands. Sw: “ Woman Walks Ahead” tells the story of Catherine Wheldon ( Jessica Chastain), a portrait painter from New York, who, in 1890 set out on her own from New York to the Dakotas to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull ( Michael Greyeyes). W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words. “ Woman Walks Ahead” will premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival on September 10. She also helmed BBC’s “ Jane Eyre,” which earned her an Emmy nomination. Her previous credits include “ Our Kind of Traitor” and “Parade’s End.” White was lauded for her six episodes of “ Bleak House” for the BBC, winning a host of international broadcast awards including the BAFTA and Rts awards for Best Drama Serial. “ Woman Walks Ahead” Susanna White is a BAFTA-winning film and television director.