Four days. No food, no water. Your chest pierced for the Creator. Still think your weekend was hard?
This feature-length documentary chronicles the Sundance ceremony brought to Eastern Canada by William Nevin of the Elsipogtog First Nation of the Mi'kmaq. Nevin learned from Elder Keith Chiefmoon of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Alberta. Under the July sky, participants in the Sundance ceremony go four days without food or water. Then they will pierce the flesh of their chests in an offering to the Creator. This event marks a transmission of culture and a link to the warrior traditions of the past.
Direction
Francis refuses to sensationalize—just bears witness
Sound
The silence between drumbeats hits harder than any score
Director
Brian J. Francis
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act finally legalized the Sundance in the US; Canada had no equivalent federal protection, making Nevin's 2008 ceremony an act of quiet defiance.
Nathan Lee Chasing Horse appearing here predates his 2023 arrest by 15 years—a complicated postscript to any viewing now.
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