Coming to theatres this Friday, July 22: THE SEVENTH FIRE
Jack Pettibone Riccobono’s intimate exploration of Native American gang life made its bow at Berlin last year. Additional screenings have included New Orleans, Palm Springs, Documenta Madrid, Mar del Plata, Stockholm, Minneapolis-St Paul, Big Sky, Hawaii, Iran’s Cinema Vérité, and East End.
Riccobono’s artfully filmed portrait is set on the White Earth Reservation in Pine Point MN, and focuses on two men: Rob Brown, a longtime gang leader facing his fifth stint in prison, and Kevin, a teenager who’s on the same path in their impoverished, dead-end community. Urging the boy not to accept that drugs and criminality are inevitable, Brown also faces the consequences of his own actions, including being separated from his young daughter. Offering a candid, and often bleak, look at the continuing cycles of poverty, neglect, and abuse present in Native communities, the film nevertheless does offer room for hope as its young protagonists try to find a path forward.
what (not) to doc 