A United States Premiere of “The Beguiling,” a 15 and ½ minute short about native American Indians, premiered at SXSW Film and TV Festival Sunday, March 9, at the Rollins Theater at the Long Center. A second showing will be held at the Alamo on South Lamar on March 13th, Alamo Theater #9, 10:15 p.m. until 12:06 a.m. (Midnight Shorts Category).
Ishkwaazhe Shane McSauby wrote and directed the film. It explores the romance between two young Native Americans. Benairin Kane portrays Billy. Kim Savarino portrays Riley. The plot summary states, “Deceit turns their romantic evening into a darkly comedic nightmare.” Alex Heeney (“Seventh Row”) said: “This horror-inflected film addresses some hard-to-discuss-without-stepping-in-it issues. Wait for the fantastic needle drop, which offers a lot to unpack.” Here is my unpacking, attempting to address some plot points, without stepping in it or giving away the store.
SYNOPSIS
Director Ishkwaazhe Shane Mcsauby of “The Beguiling,” short premiering at SXSW.
The plot summary might more accurately have described this short as being an investigation into the phenomenon of “Pretendians” or “self-Indigenizers,” people who are not of Indian ancestry misrepresenting themselves as Indian. If you don’t remember Senator Elizabeth Warren’s claims to have some native American ancestry, those remarks caused her to be belittled at Trump’s March 4th Address to Congress (the “Pocahontas” jab.) That makes it an even more timely topic.
PRETENDIANS
A New Yorker article by Jay Caspian Kang laid out the case of a Professor at Berkeley, Elizabeth Hoover, who rose quickly through academia based on her claimed Indian heritage. One observer, who described the woman as showing up at every faculty meeting to spend the entire meeting beading said, “It looked like an entire Etsy store had exploded on her.” So, these “Pretendians” or “self-Indigenizers” are a fact of life if you are of native American Indian ancestry.
Hoover (one of many, it should be noted) ultimately released a “Letter of Apology and Accountability” for the “broken trust” that she had caused. She maintained that her deception was in no way intentional. She insisted that posing as native American was simply what she had been told about her heritage as a young child, ancestry which she had accepted without questioning it or investigating it more fully. Hoover’s public apology labeled “Identity Crisis” was released on March 4, 2024.
Therefore, the background for this 15-minute short has its roots in recent history. In the pre-Trump days, when diversity and inclusion mattered, sometimes it was advantageous (especially in academia) if a white person claimed to have Indian blood.
DENOUEMENT
In the lead-up to an emerging romantic tryst between Brooklyn residents Riley (Kim Savarino) and Billy (Benairin Kane) in “The Beguiling,” Riley bites Billy a bit too aggressively in the neck. Billy goes in search of a bandaid. What he finds while searching for a bandaid in Riley’s bathroom medicine drawer and cabinets makes him suspicious about Riley’s authenticity.
Is Riley trying to convince Billy she is “a real Indian” when she’s not? If so, why?
You’ll have to journey to the Midnight Shorts at SXSW for those answers.
COMEDY OR DRAMA?
The young lovers’ romantic tryst veered a bit off the romance trail and into thriller, drama and comic territory, merging all three. For me, with my sympathies heavily on the side of the Anishimabemowin natives, the short was another sobering moment in considering the injustices of colonization in this country and of the treatment of indigenous native Indians. I’ve toured the Holocaust Museum in Skokie, Illinois. Nothing funny there on that Museum’s lower level, which is devoted to Indian interment camps in Canada where indigenous Indian youth were imprisoned and mistreated. The still-emerging details make instances of whites mistreating American (or Canadian) Indians a hard sell for humor, for me. (It just makes me mad, much like the DJT speech remark on March 4th, 2025. In other words, to me, it’s not “funny;” it’s just a continuing injustice that should be stopped and redressed. Historically, I’m with Marlon Brando on this one (despite the unfortunate Sacheen Littlefeather Pretender incident at the Oscars.)
CONCLUSION
“The Beguiling” at SXSW 2025.
The heavy-duty emphasis on native Indian history on “date night” (Which camp: Carlisle or Haskell? Genocide. Colonisation. Wild rice /manoomin) made me wonder about Billy’s taste in women. Flirtation has definitely changed since my time. In today’s America, I’m told, there are Big Discussions about party affiliation before a girl even accepts a date with the cute guy hitting her up. An interesting peek into how divided things have become since 2016.
The SXSW synopsis asserted that the piece was “darkly comedic.”
For me, the film leaned more heavily to the former than the latter. If anyone doubts the timeliness of the underlying debate about authenticity and dubious claims of native American Indian heritage, we need only direct them to rewatch the supposed Leader of the Free World (is he still?) baiting a female United States.Senator (Elizabeth Warren) on live television (March 4th, 2025), with a snide remark (“Pocahontas”) during a live Address to Congress.
Let’s keep fighting for diversity and inclusion and fair and civilized treatment for all. This short has exposed one tiny example of exploitation of a minority amidst the cultural mosaic that is the United States of America. Let’s hope that by highlighting such injustices, they can be eradicated in the future.
