Payton Counts is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe in North Dakota. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota -Twin Cities, receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in 2018. We worked on this film in collaboration with the youth ensemble and elder and community feedback. The goal was to use theater as a tool for suicide prevention work and raising awareness of helping a friend in need along with themes of hope, Missing and murdered indigenous relatives, and laughter as medicine,

Payton currently works as the Cultural Healing Coordinator for the Bois Forte Tribe, aiming to make tribal ceremonies and traditional knowledge more accessible to community members.