Blackfeet Boxing: Not Invisible (TV)
The stories in “Blackfeet Boxing: Not Invisible,” are heartbreaking. There are also stories that can be life-affirming, in how hope can possibly arise from uncertainty, and strength can be passed on to help protect a community. The film, made for ESPN, is about tragedy turned into opportunity to (hopefully) prevent further pain, and make the country more aware of an issue that is breaking a people apart.
The film begins to appear to be about Blackfeet Boxing Club, started by Frank Kipp, a third-generation boxer, as a way for kids, and young women in particular, to defend themselves on the Blackfeet Reservation on Montana. Defend themselves from what? That is what the film by Kristen Lappas and Tom Rinaldi is about on a much more profound level. The Indigenous people on the Reservation make up 3% of Montana’s population, but their women and girls make up 30% of those who go missing, or are murdered, in the state. When the film begins, we see members of a search party out looking for the remains of Ashley Loring Heavyrunner, who went missing in 2017. The spectre of what happened to her, and how little was done by police to find her, looms over all 30 minutes of the film. The reason Frank started the Boxing Club was so that maybe other young girls would have a fighting chance, unlike Ashley did. One of the best boxers in Kipp’s club is his own daughter, Donna, who, along with Mamie Kennedy (whose personal life is turbulent), is a talent so good she might be able to get into the Junior Olympics. Their stories represent the bigger arcs of the film, and seeing how they unfold is profoundly sad, as well as inspiring. This is a great example of a single film being about two things at once, and respecting both things completely, pointing to a greater issue in a personal, emotional way. Few pieces of storytelling have hit harder this year.
