In a remote Alaskan village a series of violent murders shook the community. The Hulu documentary Blood & Myth follows James Dommek Jr. investigating the case and probing the intersection of myth and reality. The central suspect, Teddy Kyle Smith, was arrested for killing his mother and shooting two men. Smith claimed Inukuns — mythical beings described by elders with shamanic powers — had forced his hand. Dommek Jr., a descendant of an Iñupiaq storyteller, says many believe Inukuns lived alongside people until blood was spilled and then withdrew. Dommek Jr. spent years arranging and conducting an interview with Smith to seek answers.
On The Red Carpet sat down with Dommek Jr. to discuss the film and his connection to the story. James Dommek Jr. for "Blood & Myth" "I'm the great-grandson of one of the last great Iñupiaq storytellers," he told us. "As soon as I heard the story, I was just obsessed with it. I just was like, 'I gotta tell this story.' I always felt like it would haunt me if I didn't."
He believes Inukuns, or as Dommek Jr. puts it, "mythical beings that we are told about by elders," had forced his hand. Teddy Kyle Smith mugshot shown in "Blood & Myth" Dommek Jr. explains in the documentary that many believe Inukuns are "supernatural beings" that have "shamanic powers." They lived "side-by-side (with the Natives) until blood was spilled, and they left," preferring to live off the land, away from humans.
When we asked him about this in our interview, he said, "I always like to say that the farther north you go, the veil between myth and reality is very thin. It sounded to me like he had a hole torn into his reality by his encounter out there. The more time you spend up north, the more you realize that this is not out of the realm of possibility."
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