Puyallup VHS tapes resurface in new film about Native identity, grief
Shauna White Bear recorded VHS tapes for her estranged father 30 years ago as a teenager living in Puyallup.
Now, 43, White Bear is reflecting on those tapes, her Native identity and her grief over her father in a new documentary, “Are You Native?” The film is premiering this weekend at the Seattle International Film Festival.
“In the past, I had wanted to make a documentary about myself,” White Bear told The News Tribune in a recent interview. “This was, like, eight years ago, and I wanted to tell the story of being an urban Native and living off the reservation.”
White Bear said she is part of the MHA Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes. In the middle of her senior year at Puyallup High School, White Bear moved to Three Forks in Montana. Now, she resides in Bozeman where she operates her moccasin company “White Bear Moccasins.”
Shauna chose documentary filmmaker Victoria Cheyenne to direct the independent project, and Cheyenne helped identify the crux of the story. The documentary was produced by Laminar Flow Flims, a Montana-based company owned by producer Erin Brender.
“Victoria had asked me if I had any old VHS tapes ... and my mom actually found or had a bunch of old VHS tapes of me, and so they were like, ‘Hey, let’s get them digitized,’” White Bear said.
Cheyenne watched 20 hours of footage and found a recording White Bear made for her father when she was in seventh or eighth grade using a camcorder.
“I didn’t have much of a relationship [with him]. He was kind of in and out of my life. And this part of my life, he was on the East Coast doing, I don’t know what,” White Bear said. “So I wanted to, like, send him a video. I had no idea I even did that.”
In the trailer for the documentary, viewers can see clips of a young White Bear saying “Hi dad” and “This is your long-lost daughter” through the tape.
The film will show White Bear confronting the grief of losing her father, who died in 2021. She will also confront “the complicated identity tied to carrying the White Bear name,” according to the synopsis of the documentary.
White Bear said much of the digitized footage is from Washington in Puyallup and Graham.
“I’ve used old pictures of me in high school, so there’s some of my old friends that will pop up,” she said. “But the film overall may resonate with a lot of people from all different backgrounds, because everyone kind of has that story of having an identity crisis, or feeling like a little bit different.”
“Are You Native?” will premiere Saturday and Sunday at the festival. More information on screenings can be found on the documentary’s website.
