The Activist

Juxtaposing a fictional mystery against a 1973 real-life crisis when 200 members of the American Indian Movement were involved in an armed standoff against state and federal officers at Wounded Knee, SD, The Activist employs archival news footage to establish historic context, but otherwise remains tightly focused on an imaginary sidebar to events. Writer-director Cyril Morin tells the story of two Native American men (Chadwick E. Brown and Michael Spears) who are unaccountably arrested and locked up in a sheriff's office, far from the tense occupation. The men naturally seek answers, and the plot thickens when both a senator and the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs turn up and try to sway the prisoners into cooperating with an agenda that they won't fully reveal. Morin makes an asset of the movie's low-budget constraints, keeping the claustrophobic action within the sheriff's four walls while continuing to emphasize dramas in the world outside, including the occupation, a crusading attorney's attempts to learn the truth behind the protagonists' incarceration, and a subplot concerning the dying wife of a deputy. A smart and engaging film, this is recommended. (T. Keogh)