Big Chief, Black Hawk (2021) on Netflix

Plot summary

Terrance Williams Jr., called Big Chief Tee, heads the Black Hawk Hunters, a Mardi Gras Indian tribe in New Orleans, and at his age he is the youngest Big Chief in the city. Each year he and the tribe build elaborate suits and prepare to parade on Mardi Gras morning, which he does while in eleventh grade, playing on a team and in a band. He carries the tradition through the COVID-19 pandemic and protests against police brutality. The documentary shows how Mardi Gras Indian culture drew on Native American and West African traditions, and it looks at the history between Black and Native people in the South. As gentrification, demographic shifts and a lack of opportunity change the city, the question is what becomes of a culture when its people are gone.