By Jasmine Majoros
Madden Running Rabbit and Gerald Little Light began filming for their latest project in early February 2025. The production took place at the residence of Stacey and Glenn Running Rabbit and numerous places on Siksika, even including the Gleichen bottle depot. This project is one of many films Madden’s been a part of as an actor, writer, and co-director, and Gerald’s role is producer, co-director, and writer. The short film “Taxi the Empties” follows a day in the life of a jobless indigenous man as he tries to navigate through his priorities.
The pair met when they both participated in Jessica Matten and Laszlo Uhrik’s Film Academy “Counting Coup” in 2022 at Old Sun Community College. The program gave the opportunity to its participants to dip their toes into the film industry. Since then, Gerald and Madden have branched off, creating their own projects with Laszlo Uhrik and even doing short films in their spare time that include Drew Running Rabbit, Davey Jerry, and Paul Wolf Leg. Although they’ve worked on some commercials, including an M&M one, this new project has the possibility of appearing on a new streaming platform for AMC. “Taxi the Empties” is still in the works, and we can look forward to seeing where it goes from there.
“This is an awesome film. I would encourage people to see it! I feel a lot of people from the rez will relate and understand a lot of the sequences in the film. It’s a pretty close-to-home representation of a day in the life on the rez.” — Madden Running Rabbit.
“I wouldn’t mind having a film community on the reserve because there’s a lot of opportunity in film, being able to tell different stories about being native. On the business side of things, it has a lot of good jobs. Before this film, I never really knew what I wanted to do, but after it, I set a goal for myself to have a movie in a theatre or a streaming site. After I set a goal, nothing can stop me.” — Gerald Little Light.
