Salt Lake Community College film students, for their final project, have produced a 32-minute documentary titled “Missing Murdered Unheard,” which covers the lack of investigation when an Indigenous person is murdered or goes missing.
According to the United Nations, Indigenous populations are more likely to experience poverty, and women within these groups face higher rates of sexual violence and discrimination. The documentary explores how inadequate protection results in violence against Indigenous people, and how inadequate resources after a crime has been committed leaves cases unsolved.
In the film, interviewee Michelle Brown, who is Diné Navajo and serves as chair of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women Utah, discusses the uphill battle to receive equal resources as non-Indigenous persons. She points out the national attention toward Gabby Petito when she went missing and was murdered in 2021, contrasting it with the numerous deaths and disappearances of Indigenous people.
“[Petito] received more coverage and funding than any Indigenous person who has been murdered or missing,” Brown says in the film, adding that this point is nothing new, and that Utah is among the top states where Indigenous people go missing or are murdered.
Indigenous activist Carl Moore of Pandos, a group that advocates for Ingenious sovereignty, also lends his voice to the documentary. “Racism is at the root of it all,” he says in the film regarding the lack of resources made available to Indigenous people.
A trailer for “Missing Murdered Unheard” is available to watch on YouTube. Students can catch a free screening of the documentary this Friday at the South City campus, at 6 p.m.
Michelle Brown as well as producer Stephanie Chatelain and director Christopher Beltran appeared as guests on the April 20, 2023, show of Voices Amplified on KRCL’s RadioACTive. Listen to the conversation.
