Film highlights story of missing Tulalip woman – and larger crisis

EVERETT — For years now, Mary Ellen Johnson-Davis' 16 nieces and nephews have missed their aunt.

All the unread books, all the unpicked blackberries, all the times she didn't brighten their day with an impression of Scrat from the movie “Ice Age.”

In November 2020, Johnson-Davis was walking along Fire Trail Road on the north end of the Tulalip Reservation when she texted a friend saying she was “almost to church.”

She has since disappeared.

Wednesday marks 1,288 days of not knowing what happened to him.

In October 2022, her sisters, Nona Blouin and Gerry Davis, authored a documentary about Johnson-Davis' disappearance, with the aim, Davis said, of “getting her story out there and keeping her alive.”

“Missing From Fire Trail Road” is set to premiere Saturday at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

More than two dozen members of the Lummi and Tulalip tribes will attend the premiere, said French-American director Sabrina Van Tassel.

“Oh wow, I didn’t know,” Davis said. “If the tribe is behind me and Nona, I feel like we have everything we need.”

The film aims to launch a national campaign. Van Tassel, working with activists, will screen the documentary on numerous tribal lands across the country, bringing “every tool we have” to prevent indigenous people from disappearing — and to rally resources when they do.

The sisters and Van Tassel want to go beyond simple consciousness.

They want to find Johnson-Davis.

The state lists 122 active cases of missing indigenous people, according to the Washington State Patrol.

On average, people on the list have been missing for more than two years.

Missing From Fire Trail Road – Documentary Trailer (FilmRise) from FilmRise on Vimeo.

“Someone has to find her.”

Deborah Parker, CEO of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, remembers the day Johnson-Davis disappeared.

The news spread on social networks. Parker, a member of the Tulalip tribe and former vice chairman of the tribe, expected the public outcry. And I waited.

“When the silence remained and the silence remained, I asked myself, 'Why are we being so silent about something that is so important?'” said Parker, executive producer of the documentary.

She heard people talking about the difficulties of Johnson-Davis's life, in order to downplay her disappearance. Parker wanted them to focus on what's most important: finding Johnson-Davis.

“All of these factors may be, could be true. Maybe, maybe not,” she said. “But the reality is she’s missing and someone has to find her.”

Over time, she accepted that no spotlight should be placed on Johnson-Davis. Then Van Tassel called Parker. The director had the money to make a documentary about Johnson-Davis.

Van Tassel's work has already sparked change.

One of his previous documentaries, “The State of Texas vs. Melissa,” was about Melissa Lucio, a woman sentenced to death for the murder of her son. Van Tassel's documentary claimed it was a wrongful conviction.

This documentary also premiered at Tribeca and is now on Hulu. This galvanized a public campaign in favor of Lucio.

Lucio's death sentence was overturned in April, in part because the prosecutor withheld evidence from Lucio's defense.

“That of course tells me that anything is possible,” Van Tassel said. “There is magic in cinema, there is magic in documentaries.”