'Blood & Myth' Blends Real Life And Legend In A True Crime Tale From Alaska’s Remote North

"It became clear that if I don't tell this story, I'm going to regret it the rest of my life," filmmaker James Dommek Jr. told HuffPost.

Our interview basically begins with an Alaskan proverb.

“They say the veil between myth and reality is very thin up north,” James Dommek Jr. tells me as we talk about “Blood & Myth,” an upcoming Hulu documentary about a series of crimes in an Iñupiaq village in northern Alaska. Dommek serves as the executive producer and narrator of the film, which airs on Hulu in September. The documentary, set in Alaska’s most remote regions and blending true crime and Native folklore, is adapted from the 2019 Audible original “Midnight Son”; it is directed by Kahlil Hudson.

“Blood & Myth” tries to untangle how Teddy Kyle Smith, an Iñupiaq man who was well-known in his community, experienced a supposed encounter with the supernatural — and ended up going on a violent rampage.

Smith is a former Marine who volunteered with elders, taught children traditional Iñupiaq skills and found work as an actor. His part in the 2011 coming-of-age drama “On The Ice” became a point of pride among his people, who saw the film as an authentic representation of their culture after decades of stereotypical portrayals by outsiders. After the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, it seemed like Smith was opening doors for the Iñupiaq to have their own voice.

“It seemed like he had so much going for him,” Dommek says in the documentary. “How can someone just go off the rails like that?”