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Chiefs; (DVD); Not Rated; 87 minutes;
Comparisons to Hoop Dreams are inevitable, but Chiefs can claim its own unique perspective on a neglected chapter in the history of high school basketball. Filmed over the course of two years and originally broadcast on the PBS series Independent Lens, this 90-minute documentary chronicles the trials and triumphs of Wyoming Indian High School's championship-seeking boy's basketball team, a source of great community pride among the 5,000 Native American citizens (mostly Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho) of the Wind River Reservation in west-central Wyoming. As the Chiefs survive key-player injuries and other unexpected setbacks in their quest for the state championship, filmmaker Daniel Junge focuses on several players whose lives provide a broad-spectrum profile of life "on the rez," where dire conditions (poverty, alcoholism, racism, youth suicide) turn desperate young men into a close-knit team of title-worthy hoop stars.
The combination of tribal tradition and typical high-school peer pressure give the film a compelling subtext of real-life dramatic suspense; even as the Chiefs (a team name that's refreshingly liberated from concerns of political correctness) get closer to state-finals victory, we're left wondering if any of these boys will conquer the many obstacles that block them from a promising future. Particularly involving is the story of Beaver C'Bearing, a star player facing his last chance at a state championship, sidetracked by injury, pot-smoking, and his own uncertainty about where his life is going. Without sentiment or phony cheerleading, Junge follows Beaver and other young men, and Chiefs subtly evolves into a multifaceted portrait of life on the edge, where personal initiative and sheer chance play equal roles in forming young men who've earned, and deserve, their opportunities for success. Junge's choice of subject matter also qualifies Chiefs as one of the most revealing and authentic portraits of modern life on the reservation, where hardship and sociopolitical disadvantage is a harsh daily reality. --Jeff Shannon
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