When Sinakson Trevor Solway was a young boy on the sweeping open prairies of Siksika Nation, his grandfather would pause mid-chore to tell stories.
“He would go into the history of the land that we’re on, or go into these old cowboy stories, with his brothers and his cousins,” explained Solway. “Sometimes the stories that he would tell, they would really engage your imagination, and you believed that they were real because you could see it.”
Those key moments of stillness and storytelling now echo through Solway’s latest film, Siksikakowan: The Blackfoot Man, screening Sept. 18 at the Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF). The documentary film is a quiet, four-year portrait of Blackfoot men and the rich layers of history and emotion that shape their ideas of masculinity.
Where it all began
Raised on a ranch in Canada’s second-largest reserve, Solway said his tight-knit family and rural upbringing grounded him within his community and culture.
“When I’m telling stories or writing a script or filming a documentary, I feel like I’m creating it from a place of connectedness. I feel like it gives me purpose, you know? I think my community has definitely shaped me as a person, and it nurtured me as a filmmaker,” he said.
Solway sharpened his skills at Capilano University’s Indigenous Digital Filmmaking diploma program and later in Mount Royal University’s journalism program. For Solway’s creative journey, exposure to Indigenous cinema early on was pivotal.
“We had one class where we just watched movies made by Native people,” he said. “At that point in my life, I didn’t see any that were made yet. So it really gave me this access to other Native people making authentic stories.”
A film not like the others
Those lessons in authenticity guided the creation and production of Siksikakowan, a National Film Board production that departs from traditional documentary style. Solway embraced a “cinema vérité approach,” following community members over four years without staging scenes or scripting interviews.
“I don’t really call them interviews in the film. They’re more like candid conversations. They’d be doing something, and then I’d ask them a question, just to see them arrive at their own thoughts. So their own emotions were a really beautiful thing to witness,” Solway said.
The film examines expressions of Blackfoot masculinity and how they have been disrupted by colonial violence, including residential schools. Generations of men, Solway explained, were taught to suppress their emotions.
“I think when you’re told things like, ‘don’t cry, it’s not that bad,’ or ‘toughen up, cowboy up,’ in a way, you’re gaslighting your own emotions. I think why I wanted to make this film was just to address all of that masculinity,” he said.
Before pulling out the camera and hitting record, Solway spent months in early development simply listening—sharing casual coffee and conversations with men in his community to understand their stories.
“You have to be compassionate and empathetic,” he said. “We really are ignorant of the majority of stuff until we hear it from everyone’s point of view.”
What emerged is a complex depiction of men negotiating tradition, vulnerability and identity. Viewers will see rodeos, hockey games and intimate conversations, but no popular documentary tropes, such as the tidy hero’s journey or the three-act system.
“I think when those conversations about toxic masculinity happen, it’s always in a punitive way, or it’s not really offering any solutions. And I do believe that toxic masculinity exists and it’s very real,” Solway explained. “There’s more to the story than just that shortsighted view of it. I think it’s very nuanced and there’s a reason behind that pain. I wanted to create a portrait that wasn’t putting anybody up on a pedestal, but also not throwing anybody under a bus.”
A ripple effect
Solway hopes the documentary broadens how Indigenous men are seen—by themselves and by wider audiences.
“I think that our image in stories hasn’t been authentically created by us, and not just in the news, but also in cinema,” Solway said. “You look at Western films, and Native people are often the bad guys. We’re often the savages that are threatening the stagecoach or the towns or stealing horses. So, not only do those films or those depictions keep us in a time capsule, but they also rob us of being seen as human beings.”
Solway’s vision is to push past the stereotypes and reinforce kindness with a new perspective.
“I think that the cure for racism is empathy and compassion…if you’re able to see somebody as a human being, you’re less likely to cause violence upon them,” he said.
For Solway, the Calgary premiere is part of a prairie tour that includes Lethbridge, Saskatoon and other cities. The film has already screened at Toronto’s Hot Docs and imagineNATIVE festivals, but bringing it home carries special meaning.
“It’s really special to show the film shot on the prairies, because I wanted to show it to people who can understand and relate to it,” he said.
From his grandfather’s fence-mending stories to the candid conversations captured on camera, Siksikakowan reflects a lifelong commitment to place and people.
“I’m grateful to the men in my film who were brave enough to be vulnerable,” Solway said. “We’re allowed to have emotions. We’re allowed to be angry, sad, happy. That’s what makes us human. And I just want to say thank you to everyone who wasn’t afraid to be their authentic selves in the film.”
Siksikakowan: The Blackfoot Man is screening at CIFF on Sept. 24 and Sept. 28.