I suppose you can approach Elder in the Making, which won an award at the little-known Calgary International Film Festival, with a skeptical response. A lot of us have heard of germs brought over by Europeans that devastated Aboriginal peoples in the Americas; the disappearance of the buffalo; the breaking of treaties; and of course the residential schools that have gotten a lot more exposure lately (I've already heard complaints we've heard enough). What more can be said?
What Elder in the Making has to offer is a perspective, specifically, of the Blackfoot peoples in southern Alberta- from the perspective, interestingly, of a Chinese Canadian. The director, whose ancestors came over from Taiwan, expressed curiosity in learning more about Canadian history, and contacted a Blackfoot activist interesting enough in his own right, taking the name Cowboy X out of inspiration from Malcolm X (Cowboy is seriously his first name). The film does offer some interesting insights from these unique viewpoints, and the filmmakers have said they received comments from local audiences who were surprised they haven't heard much of this. This is a different look at a tribe previously best known from the notorious radio show Brocket 99- Wikipedia that if you don't know it.
The film may look, visually, a bit flat. It is limited by the landscape of its setting. It may try to cover a bit too much. But it is a promising step from a fledgling director.
