Talking Feather

“This haunting documentary looks at the ritual of the hunt and its place in the history and identity of today’s Lakota Sioux.” K. Han, The New York Times

Film- The Buffalo Hunt- poster credit-Kansas City Film Fest

Excerpt: ‘The Buffalo Hunt’ Review: The Sacred Ties That Bind

“At first glance, ‘The Buffalo Hunt’ seems fairly straightforward… the people of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota take apart a buffalo, using the skin to make drums and splitting up the meat for those who could not attend the hunt, as well as for a communal soup.

‘The Buffalo Hunt’ seeks to show SD tribe in a new light. DRG NEWS

It’s that last use around which the documentary eventually coalesces, becoming a striking, poetic look at the Lakota Sioux…The process of killing a buffalo is deftly juxtaposed with what the buffalo will be used for, and with the way it serves the community and brings it together.

The Buffalo Hunt LLC, amm Brewer, left, and Oglala Lakota Chief Ricky Gray. The Daily Herald

THE BUFFALO HUNT – Official Trailer

Interstitial scenes help paint a more comprehensive picture as the film’s subjects discuss problems with drug use, generational trauma and the temptation to leave the reservation…Despite the hardships they’ve suffered and continue to endure, these are people who have learned how to survive and to provide for one another. The little details — the cook whose T-shirts all seem to reference marijuana, the old man whose shedding of his jacket is intercut with the skinning of the buffalo — come across as loving. After all, the ultimate purpose of the buffalo is to feed and nurture.”