Indigenous filmmaker releases ‘The Boom’

The film industry overall does not have as many stories about Native people as it should or could.”

Ajuawak Kapashesit

Audio

Indigenous filmmaker releases ‘The Boom’_Jan Willms.mp3

Anishinabe filmmaker Ajuawak Kapashesit has taken a Longfellow neighborhood phenomenon and drawn on it to create a short film relevant to his culture.

Kapashesit said he was sitting in his Minneapolis apartment one night and heard a loud noise with a different sound than a gunshot or car crash. He did some research and learned about the “Longfellow Boom.”

Since the mid-2000s, area residents have described hearing loud sounds, usually on a summer night. Although numerous reasons have been listed as the cause of the noise, nothing has ever been confirmed.

Kapashesit used his film making, writing and storytelling skills to create a short film called “The Boom,” that ran in the 2026 Minneapolis Saint Paul International Film Fest (MSPIFF) in Minneapolis.

The film offers a different perspective on the phenomenon.

MEET AJUAWAK KAPASHESIT
“I wanted to be a film director since I was a child,” Kapashesit said. “I didn’t even know what it really was, but I knew I wanted to be one.”

However, it was not until he graduated from Macalester College that he decided to take a deeper look into the arts.

“I started as an actor, and it was several years before I became a director,” he said. “I love acting, writing, directing and producing. I love all of them differently.”

He said that it is required to jump around and sometimes focus on one skill more than another. ”There’s not enough work to sustain one particular thing.”

CITIES ON INDIGENOUS LAND
Kapashesit said that most of his work as a writer and director has been related to his Indigenous culture and history. He added that part of his work comes from stories he is interested in telling and being a part of.

“The film industry overall does not have as many stories about Native people as it should or could,” he said. “So I started working on projects that supported more of those and created more of those.”

Kapashesit stated that a big part of his film “The Boom” addressed the aspects of city and rural life of Native Americans. “I grew up in reservation communities,” he said. “I moved to the city in 2018 and have lived mostly in cities since then. We can feel more isolated and separated in the city, even though there are so many people in it. I wanted to express this as well.

“Every city on the continent can feel like it has spaces that are not familiar to you,” he continued. “All these cities are still on Indigenous land, and I wanted to show the connection to the land underneath the concrete.”

MYSTERIOUS LONGFELLOW BOOM
Kapashesit said he appreciated that no explanation has been confirmed as to the source of the Longfellow Boom. “You can look up a lot of things now, and when I first heard the Boom, the fact that there was no clear answer appealed to me.”

In describing the process of film making, Kapashesit said that all films are collaborations. “One of the challenges is getting people all on the same page,” he noted. “It’s important to explore.”

He said that the benefit of being both the writer and director of a film, which he was for “The Boom,” is that he can understand the writer’s intentions and incorporate that as the director.

According to Kapashesit, there are some notable Indigenous filmmakers in the Twin Cities, but not as many as there could be. “There are a lot who have aspirations, but don’t really know how to achieve their goal,” he said.
Kapashesit said he has been trying to do workshops with Migizi, a nonprofit on East Lake Street that serves primarily Native American youth.

“The organization offers production programming, and I went to talk through my process and give the youth grounding of how to make a movie. On top of that, we talked about hair and make-up and costuming. Many Indigenous people have not played these roles before.”

NEED TO BE CREATIVE
Kapashesit explained that film-making is just another form of storytelling. “It is a process of sharing knowledge, and there are many art forms that do that,” he said. “Film is the one I am most drawn to, and the best way for me to share the stories that I want to tell.”

What he reads or hears on the radio, what he sees on his travels or what he observes when out and about walking can provide inspiration for Kapashesit’s next project. “I spend a lot of time just listening,” he added.
For now, he plans to concentrate more on acting, producing and writing. “I hope to spend some time in my hammock, reading and making notes,” he said.

He commented that everyone has creative thoughts, but doesn’t always know how to express them. “But we all have a need to be creative,” he added.