An exhibit in a geology museum feels similarly uneasy, especially when compared to the vibrant Native culture in the countervailing scenes. King’s warning about which stories to believe cuts to a historical re-enactment of Custer’s Last Stand the mock violence cuts sharply into Latimer’s slow pans across cheering crowds of white Canadians. A breathtaking early shot captures a man in traditional headdress and body paint surveying a wide open plain that leads to an obtrusive cityscape. Latimer foregoes the traditional talking head documentary structure, choosing instead to luxuriate in a more ephemeral interplay between subject and image. ‘Love Again’ Review: Not Even Celine Dion Can Save This Wildly Contrived Rom-Com from Its Own Sadness Though we never see him speak, King is a ubiquitous presence in the film, whether he’s riding in his golden chariot or munching popcorn in a movie theater as Westerns play out the myth of “Cowboys and Indians.” The image is inspired by King’s overarching parable about a coyote who covets a flock of ducks’ beautiful feathers, plying them with promises and always asking for more. His chauffeur wears a coyote headdress, and occasionally gives the camera cunning glances. Shepherding the film as a sage narrator, King sits comfortably in the backseat of a vintage taxi cab, gazing knowingly at stolen land now known as Toronto.

Unearthing contemporary Indigenous culture with a tender reverence, “Inconvenient Indian” urgently reframes an ugly narrative we’ve been fed for far too long. As King offers: “History is a story we tell about the past,” and Latimer understands filmmaking is a powerful storytelling tool. Our guide is writer and Native rights activist Thomas King, whose 2012 book “The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America” has been given an absorbing screen treatment by Indigenous Canadian filmmaker Michelle Latimer.

“You have to be careful of the stories you tell, and you have to watch out for the stories you are told,” goes the meditative opening voiceover of “ Inconvenient Indian,” an evocative and visually ripe love poem to Canadian Indigenous culture.

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