Because of the strong racial implications and questions presented in his film, Marcos Barbery said audiences have had many different reactions.
At one film festival, he said some viewers had to walk out because they said they were angry with what they saw. At another film festival, he and his co-director Sam Russell had to sit in the aisle due to a sold-out screening.
Barbery and Russell will be present as “By Blood,” their 2015 documentary following the Freedmen of Cherokee tribes, screens today at the IU Cinema.
Barbery said they tried to be as objective as possible when following the Freedmen, the descendants of African slaves sold to Native American tribes who were later granted citizenship in an 1866 treaty.
“When we think of Native Americans, we tend to think of them as victims,” he said. “But there’s this untold story, which is the history of oppression around folks who perhaps suffered even worse: the slaves held by Native American tribes.”
The documentary focuses on recent developments in these tribes, he said. Despite the 1866 treaty, ethnically Cherokee members have been advocating to remove the Freedmen from their tribes and cut off their financial benefits.
Native American tribes have gained many rights from the federal government in the past 20 years. Barbery said this has given Cherokees the sovereignty to decide who is and isn’t a citizen of their tribe.
Although losing financial benefits is a large reason the Freedmen are fighting for citizenship, Barbery said their film also emphasizes their untold history and the loss of identity they are facing.
Prior to researching the topic, Barbery said he couldn’t believe Native Americans owned slaves and even sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War.
As a result, Barbery said he and Russell researched as they were filming, which led to a natural learning process.
“It’s not uncommon for producers to write out a script of what it is they want to say and then go into interviews and extract information,” he said. “This was made in a much more organic and well-reported way.”
This style of documentary filming left Barbery with a large volume of footage, he said. The film came together in the editing room, after the directors spent countless hours sifting through material.
Despite the film’s 64-minute run time, Barbery said each chapter had the potential to be its own feature-length film.
“This could be a 10-hour film,” he said.
In order to provide context, Barbery said it switches back and forth between the present-day struggles of the Cherokee Nation and those of the past 200 years.
Because there have been daily developments with the tribes, Barbery said he and Russell are constantly updating the film to make it as representative of the current situation as they can.
“Today, right now, we’ve updated the screening for tomorrow in Bloomington,” he said. “It’s the most updated version.”
Due to Indiana’s place in the Midwest, Barbery said he encourages anyone with Native American heritage to attend the screening and join the conversation.
Likewise, Barbery said the costs to make documentary films have become more democratized and he hopes to see a wider diversity of filmmakers in the future.
“The key is to find stories that you become utterly obsessed with,” he said. “If you’re an independent filmmaker, you’ve got to find some kind of subject that you feel is so important in your heart to tell.”
