A new Hulu documentary, Blood & Myth, premieres Sept. 4 and examines an uncommon true-crime story that intersects violence, Indigenous belief and a high-profile arrest. The film centers on Teddy Kyle Smith, an Iñupiat actor now serving a 99-year prison sentence after he shot two brothers while they were hunting in 2012.
Smith, best known for his role in the 2011 Sundance film On the Ice, was convicted in 2014 of first-degree attempted murder for the shooting, which took place in a cabin by the Squirrel River, about 40 miles from the northern Alaska city of Kiana. The victims, Paul and Charles Buckel, survived the attack.
According to accounts detailed in the documentary and public records, Smith shot the brothers while he was on the run following the death of his mother. Police were unable to determine a cause of death for Smith’s mother and said they found no evidence of foul play. Smith has said he feared being treated as a suspect because he had been in the house with her when she died.
Smith has maintained an explanation tied to Iñupiat lore: he told investigators and, in the on-camera interview filmed in prison and included in Blood & Myth, that he believed the men were sent by iñukuns, little people whom some Inupiat describe as living in the tundra and possessing mystical powers. The documentary presents that claim alongside interviews, court records and reporting about the case.
The film includes the first interview with Smith since his arrest, a recorded conversation conducted inside the prison where he is serving his sentence. Producers say the interview appears on camera for the first time in the film and is framed by reporting that traces the timeline from the shooting to the trial and conviction.
Legal records show Smith was tried and convicted in 2014 of first-degree attempted murder. Details in news accounts and court filings describe the shooting and the subsequent criminal proceedings but do not indicate that law enforcement has concluded there was criminal involvement in Smith’s mother’s death.
Blood & Myth places the case in a broader cultural and forensic context, documenting how local belief systems entered the evidentiary and narrative record of a criminal prosecution. The film examines how the invocation of iñukuns, a culturally specific concept for some Inupiat people, shaped public perceptions of motive and culpability during and after the case.
The Buckel brothers’ survival and the rarity of the claims at the center of the case have drawn sustained media attention. The documentary seeks to show how community, folklore and the criminal justice system intersected in a remote region of Alaska and to record the perspectives of people involved on all sides, including family members, prosecutors, defense counsel and community members.
Blood & Myth will be available Sept. 4 on Hulu. The documentary’s release comes more than a decade after the 2012 shooting and more than a decade after Smith’s high-profile role in the independent film On the Ice, which brought attention to issues of life in remote Alaskan communities.
