Jessica Chastain Explores New Ground in First Trailer for A24’s Woman Walks Ahead

Woman Walks Ahead tells the incredible true story of New York portrait artist Catherine Weldon, who travels alone to the Wild West’s Dakota territory to paint the great Chief Sitting Bull. Set in the late 1800s, the story shows Weldon befriending Sitting Bull and finding herself involved in the Native American people’s struggle over their rights.

The real Weldon, born Susanna Carolina Faesch, became a huge advocate for Native Americans after spending some time with the Sioux. Unfortunately, we all know how it ended for Chief Sitting Bull and his people. In the 2002 historical book Woman Walking Ahead: In Search of Catherine Weldon and Sitting Bull, we learn that Catherine used her advocacy in the form of offering her secretarial services to Sitting Bull, since he could not read or write in English. Her service was useful until she began to oppose Bull’s Ghost Dance movement, which she believed would give the U.S. military a reason to jail or kill him. This, plus the Wounded Knee Massacre later the same year, proved Weldon right, resulting in a terrible tragedy for the Native American people.