A Tribe of One
2003 · 38m · Canada
Directed by Eunhee Cha
Genres: biography, documentary, historical
Tones: contemplative, tender
Rhonda Larrabee traces the Indigenous heritage her mother felt compelled to conceal and, now Chief of the New Westminster Band, works to revitalise the Qayqayt First Nation.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's a straightforward heritage doc, which is fine, but there's no formal risk here—no reason to pick it over the dozen other Indigenous reclamation narratives that hit festivals every year with the same reverent pacing and expected emotional beats.
Cha's structural restraint in letting Rhonda's archive-work and present-day leadership speak for itself positions this squarely in the lineage of essayistic documentary that prizes witness over spectacle; the tenderness emerges from formal clarity rather than sentiment.
The quiet decision to let silence and Rhonda's own voice carry the historical recovery—rather than layering in talking heads or archival narration—does almost everything here, making 38 minutes feel like it contains an entire nation's breath.