"This May Be the Last Time" is a documentary by Native American filmmaker
Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Creek) that interweaves the story of the 1962
disappearance of his grandfather with the rich history of the Muscogee (Creek)
hymns the Seminole community sang as they searched for him. It's the evolution
of these songs, a form of a capella "line singing," that Harjo
determines to investigate and shed light on. Through interviews with community
members and outside academics, Harjo discovers that the hymns likely entered
the Seminole language via Scottish missionaries, who also influenced rural Appalachia
congregations, as well as African American churches in the South during the
early 1800s, prior to the tragic relocation of Seminole communities on the
notorious "Trail of Tears." Tribal members sang the songs on the long
forced march and they subsequently became mainstays of churches reestablished
in Oklahoma .
Most intriguingly, Harjo's sources help make the connection
between one of their religious songs and the Rolling Stones' cover of the
Staples Singers' gospel tune "The Last Time." The roots of the song can
be traced back to an African American spiritual from the 1800s called "This
May Be The Last Time." Filtering painstaking research on the evolution of
Creek Nation hymns through a tragic narrative from Harjo's family history, the
director's first nonfiction feature is heartfelt and illuminating. The documentary can currently be streamed at Netflix. To learn
more, please visit the official website.
