Bighetty & Bighetty is a brief documentary about puppeteer brothers Kelsey, Andrew, Daniel, Ken and Russell Bighetty. Hailing from Pukatawagan, a part of the Mathias Colomb First Nation in Northern Manitoba, Canada, the brothers produce improvised puppet exhibits and skits that flip backwards and forwards between English and Cree that includes the antics of 4 characters going about on a regular basis life in Northern Canada.

The Bighetty brothers grew up watching Henson exhibits like Fraggle Rock and Sesame Road, and commenced entertaining their family and friends with puppets a number of years in the past. Their movies shortly went viral on Fb and elsewhere on social media, they usually have been quickly being requested to carry out throughout Western Canada, lots of that are preventing to protect and promote using Cree, which is definitely a group of Algonquian languages spoken primarily in Northern and Western Canada.

I used to be at all times looking for a local puppet, and I’d by no means see one.

The Bighettys make the most of a number of Cree dialects, that are various relying on the group the place they’re performing. In addition they carry out in different languages like Dene and Ojibwe when touring to non Cree talking communities. The present is particularly significant to their viewers as a result of – as this documentary factors out – many Indigenous kids and adults have by no means seen a puppet that appears like them earlier than.

The documentary explores the deep wounds the tragic demise of Russell Bighetty in 2018 left on his surviving brothers, in addition to their willpower to maintain the enjoyment of their performances alive. It’s a legacy of language, love and laughter that’s very touching, and sort of inspiring story from Canada’s north that isn’t instructed almost typically sufficient.