How film is putting Indigenous languages in the spotlight

Original films like "Sooyi" and dubbed versions of movies like "Moana" and "Star Wars" are bringing attention to Indigenous languages. As these endeavors prove successful and demand grows, the medium is increasingly being seen as a tool to revitalize dying tongues.

The independent film, directed by Krisztian Kery, centers on a young Blackfoot man in the 1700s who sees his people decimated by smallpox after the arrival of European settlers in the Great Plains. But as much as "Sooyii" is a story about a specific period of Blackfoot history, about power and deadly disease and ethnic conflict, it's also a cultural artifact -- a 90-minute, cinematic record of an endangered tongue.

"Sooyii" is shot entirely in the Blackfoot language, a significant feat considering how few first language speakers there are among the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. Jesse DesRosier, a Blackfoot language teacher who served as a consultant on the film, estimates that his tribe -- one of four bands that make up the Blackfoot Confederacy -- has about 50 people who grew up with Blackfoot as their first language.