A new film about Hiawatha Bailey.
p.s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiawatha
https://www.theoaklandpress.com/2026/11/02/new-documentary-looks-at-underappreciated-michigan-cultural-icon-hiawatha-bailey/
https://eu.freep.com/story/entertainment/movies/2026/11/05/song-of-hiawatha-bailey-documentary-detroit/92624084007/
As the filmmaker had discovered, Bailey wasn’t merely an unconventional personality who was quick with funny quips and engaging anecdotes. He’d also been on the front lines of the Detroit-Ann Arbor scene where rock and radicalism mingled — a street kid who’d discovered acid, made his way to the White Panther Party, found himself alongside bands such as the MC5, and became friends with eventual FBI targets such as Sinclair and Plamondon, whose antiwar activism and pro-cannabis advocacy thrust them into the headlines.
And so “The Song of Hiawatha” is as much a sociocultural story as it is the biography of a distinctive character, with the Georgia-born Bailey as a narrative vehicle for decades of American history: the Great Migration, the hippie revolution, the political unrest of the ‘60s and the rise of punk.
“It’s not just a rock story. It’s this intersection of music and race and radicalism and the rise of the LGBTQ community and the roots of the decriminalization and legalization of marijuana,” says executive producer Steven Blush. “All of that comes together in the story of Hiawatha.”
