Customer Reviews

Chiefs

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Chiefs is a documentary that follows the high school basketball team from Wyoming's Wind River Indian Reservation. The film covers two seasons (1999-2001), which allows the filmmakers to follow the players after graduation. It is the story of young men on the brink of adulthood.

Some of the best scenes show the players at home with their families. The Wind River Indians send mixed messages about what it means to leave "The Rez." On the one hand, getting an education and a good job means success. On the other, it means selling out and losing one's cultural identity.

The cinematography is amazing. Ramshackle houses, junker cars, and rusted basketball goals contrast with the incredible Rocky Mountains. Wind River is both a paradise and a slum.

Unfortunately, the film includes some clumsy political commentary. The viewer sees the Chiefs a) watching a history of American Indians and b)standing for the national anthem. These scenes are ham-handed and unnecessary. Simply showing life on The Rez makes a subtler - and more effective - comment.

Chiefs is not perfect, but it is good. Viewers cheer for these guys to win - on the court and off. I recommend this film.

This documentary looked at two seasons of a Wyoming Native team that goes to the state's B-ball championships. Too often, docs on Native Americans focus on alcoholism, extreme poverty, and suicide. The interviewees do face obstacles, but those issues don't really come up here.
I'm an African American and this reminded me so much of my own community. This shows young males of color whose only dreams of advancement come through sports. There's mowie-wowie, baggy clothes, and rap music here. A huge difference, however, is that usually Black teams play other Black teams often. Here, the Native teams seemed to be the only ones in the state. I think it'll be easy to free-associate to "Edge of America" here. However, I think those interested in related works may want to see the doc "Flintown Kids."
Taking off my militant cap, I've heard that high school sports become incredibly important in place without college or professional teams around. Opponent teams do things that could be deemed racist, but they also say, "Trash talking is a part of all sports regardless of the teams' makeup." The word "class never comes up, but it stood out to me that teams in Casper had pep bands and cheerleaders. Again, with race aside, this team may remind viewers of any athletes in rural areas.
The work shows little kids in Native regalia, but you almost never see these teen athletes dressed like that or performing Native rituals. The work doesn't touch if athletes purposely separate themselves from indigenous cultural acts. It's nice that the team can gain pride from B-ball, but I did wonder if the players ever cared about keeping Native languages alive or working to bring resources to the reservation.
A big question for young athletes is, "What are you going to do after you graduate?" The work shows those who go on to college sports and those who don't. Still, one male dropped out of a Native college and never explained why. I wish that had been explored. I wonder if during all that B-ball match travelling if the team should have been visiting colleges. Many of the teammates go on to colleges, but I wasn't sure why none of them seemed to then go on to Univ. of WY if they are such famous players. Why couldn't these athletes go on to be high school teachers/coaches or personal trainers? I hated the "sports or nothing" dichotomy here.
For more than a decade, Native activists have been trying to fight sports teams named after Natives. This team never addresses that issue. They never explain why they are cool with "chiefs" being their mascot. Almost all of the players and their coaches have short hair. However, if you love seeing Native men with very long hair, you can see them here with their sexiness.

I personally know the director. Not very well at all though . I see him at some family outings about once every 2 years. He does good work and this was no different . I liked it . Not many times do you see a world you have never seen before . This time you get to see that and what they go thru and how they live . I like it .