Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, September 22: BY BLOOD
Marcos C Barbery and Sam Russell’s chronicle of contested identity debuted at New Orleans last year. Other screenings have included Big Sky, Cleveland, deadCENTER, and the San Diego Black film fests. FilmBuff now releases the doc across various VOD platforms.
In an effort to modernize Native American tribal ways at the turn of the 19th century, the federal government introduced the concept of slavery as a means to improve farming practices. As a result, the Cherokee Nation, among others, became an African slave-owning tribe, and even fought for the Confederacy. After the conclusion of the Civil War, the Cherokee’s slaves were released, granted tribal membership, and referred to as Freedmen. In more recent decades, however, the Cherokee, like other First Nations, have begun to deny tribal citizenship to the descendants of Freedman. Barbery and Russell’s even-handed exploration of this contentious issue offers provocative questions about the boundaries of race, identity, sovereignty, and politics, and demonstrates the powerful pull of one’s need to belong.
what (not) to doc 