If the history of American counterculture has always felt a little too white-washed for your liking, a new documentary is here to kick the doors off the hinges. “The Song of Hiawatha: The Life and High Times of the First Black Hippie” is officially hitting the festival circuit, and it’s bringing some of punk and rock’s biggest icons along for the ride.

Produced by American Hardcore author Steven Blush and directed by Lower East Side filmmaker Jeffrey Wengrofsky, the feature-length film traces the remarkable life of Hiawatha Bailey — queer political activist, musician, and a man of African-American and Native-American ancestry who is widely recognized as the first Black hippie.

The Life Behind the Legend

Bailey’s story reads like a secret history of the American underground. The film follows his journey as part of the African-American “Great Migration” from the Deep South to Detroit in the 1950s, his turning on to LSD and joining a commune in 1965, and his pivotal role as the only Black member of the revolutionary White Panthers in 1968. After serving a four-year prison term — during which he started his first musical outfit — Bailey went on to form the punk band Cult Heroes in 1978.

A Cast of Rock and Radical Royalty

The lineup of talking heads is staggering. The film features Hiawatha Bailey himself alongside Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, the late MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, John Sinclair, Cheetah Chrome, Niagara Detroit, Ron Asheton, Pun Plamondon, Professor Judson Jeffries, Leni Sinclair, Genie Plamondon, David Fenton, Lawrence Livermore, John Brannon, Maxie Chanel, Jennifer Holiday Chanel, and Deniz Tek. Fun fact: two of the interviewees were once on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List. Your move, Ken Burns.

Equally wild are the documents unearthed for the film, including a letter from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, a landmark Supreme Court decision, a contract signed by John Lennon, and a trove of never-before-seen photos dating back beyond the 1960s.

A Soundtrack Built for the Heads

The soundtrack is exactly what you’d hope for: music from The MC5, The Rationals, Cult Heroes, John Brannon’s pre-Negative Approach band Static, and pioneering African-American punk rockers Pure Hell, with additional scoring by Elan Portnoy of the Fuzztones.

Want a taste of what the Motor City’s wild side sounds like? Revisit the sonic universe that shaped Hiawatha Bailey via Iggy Pop’s catalog on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6fOMl44jA4Sp5b9PpYCkzz

Why It Matters

As James Sclavunos of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds puts it, “This film has the potential to tell a different story about the American rock counterculture than the one we are used to hearing.” Columbia University’s Professor Ira Katznelson adds that the film “will illuminate fundamental questions about past events by offering a particularly fresh look at the New Left and its complex relationships to culture and society.”

Floating along in a psychedelic haze, “The Song of Hiawatha” takes on race, rock, radicalism, sexual identity, prison life, and antiquated drug laws with the kind of unapologetic honesty the mainstream doc world rarely musters. So smoke ’em if you got ’em. Can you dig it?

Keep an eye on festival listings in your city — this is one piece of counterculture history you don’t want to miss on the big screen. For press inquiries, contact Maria Ferrero at Adrenaline PR (maria@adrenalinepr.com).