For decades, pop culture has sold masculinity through bodies in motion: the fighter, the cowboy, the indian and Hercules, the man who never flinches. But everyday life rarely works that way. Siksikakowan: The Blackfoot Man offers a different view from an Indigenous perspective, shaped by a specific community and their own sense of cultural identity.
That’s what makes this documentary special. Even here, we see one young adult have posters of Bruce Lee and other screen icons plastered around his room. Nearly every culture has absorbed those images. It’s nearly impossible growing up with media that presents idealized heroes as the model for what men should become. However, it’s about what not only him and other men do every day which matters more. The masculinity portrayed here is not about adulation, but about coming of age and finding one’s place.
Here, we see fathers, sons, artists, and everyday people from Siksika simply living their lives. Some become athletes and earn recognition. Others turn to writing, though they seem few and far between. Along the way, the film allows them to be funny, guarded, vulnerable, and conflicted. There’s no heavy narrative placed over their stories, which gives the work room for interpretation. At times, I wanted more guidance to better understand what was happening, but perhaps that open approach is exactly what director Sinakson Trevor Solway wanted. He lets the viewer decide what it all means.
As Solway explains, “In films or in popular culture, we’ve often been cast as these ‘lords of the Plains’ or feared warriors, but those depictions are unhealthy, especially when mixed with colonial trauma, which is still present. I wanted to show Indigenous men as more than stereotypes… to present them as complex and vulnerable human beings while reclaiming healthier expressions of masculinity.”
The search for meaning is universal, and in The Blackfoot Man, perhaps presence is enough. Although this documentary feels long-winded and slow-paced at times, the cinematography thankfully does not linger too much. The colours and framing matter. A few talking-head segments offer exposition, and they provide just enough context to ground the film.
I still wanted more, and perhaps another cut may eventually offer that. Even so, what the lens captures is colourful and telling. Since the film follows the lives of several men from the Prairie community, the way it ends feels just as revealing as how it begins.
3 Stars out of 5
Siksikakowan: The Blackfoot Man Trailer
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