Remaining Native, a new documentary by Haudenosaunee filmmaker Paige Bethmann, will screen this week at the Sydney Film Festival.

The film follows 17-year-old long-distance runner Kutoven Stevens as he retraces the steps of his great-grandfather, who escaped the Stewart Indian School in Nevada at just eight years old by running 80 kilometres across the desert.

Ms Bethmann told National Indigenous Times the documentary was driven by a personal connection to the legacy of boarding schools.

"My family is Haudenosaunee and my great-grandmother went to a boarding school," she said.

"I was trying to figure out what to do with these emotions when the unmarked graves were discovered in Kamloops, Canada.

"Then I heard about this 17-year-old kid retracing his great-grandfather's escape."

The film, directed and produced by Ms Bethmann, a Haudenosaunee woman from the Mohawk and Oneida nations, has received multiple awards in the United States, including the Audience Award and Special Jury Award at South by Southwest.

It also won the Milwaukee Emerging Documentary Jury Award, received a Special Jury Mention for Cinematography at Dallas International Film Festival, and was named Best Documentary Film 3rd Runner-Up at the Seattle International Film Festival.

Remaining Native is also nominated for the First Nations Award at the Sydney Film Festival.

Ms Bethmann said she reached out to the Stevens family and asked permission to film the remembrance run.

"When I did that, I realised it was so much more of a story," she said.

"Ku was training to become a competitive athlete, balancing that with reckoning with his family history."

Ms Bethmann moved from New York City to Reno, Nevada, to document the story closely, resulting in a four-year filmmaking journey.

She said the film's focus on land, memory, and resilience resonated with Indigenous audiences.

"Land plays such a big role because all of our stories are held in the land," Ms Bethmann said.

"When we're able to access that ancestral muscle memory, it helps us move through the world."

The film-maker also sees strong parallels between the histories of Native American communities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

"Sadly, the stories of colonisation and forced assimilation resonate globally," she said.

"Indigenous people are always fighting for their culture, their land, their language, and the right to be themselves."

The film's Sydney screening will be accompanied by a community 5K run organised in partnership with the Deadly Runners and Redfern Youth Connect.

Ms Bethmann said the events are part of a broader effort to engage Indigenous communities during the film's festival run.

"We've been hosting these small 5K runs in conjunction with our screenings," she said.

"It's been a really fun way to bring folks together and have conversations.

"When we learned we were accepted to the Sydney Film Festival, the Deadly Runners reached out and wanted to collaborate."

The initiative will see a youth-led run through Redfern on Friday, with a community screening and dinner held at Redfern Youth Connect on Saturday night.

Ms Bethmann said the collaboration was a natural fit given the work Deadly Runners are already doing to inspire local youth through sport.

As she prepares to share 'Remaining Native' with Sydney audiences, Ms Bethmann said she hopes the film will encourage reflection and action.

"No oceans or borders can separate the experiences of Indigenous people in regards to colonisation and connection to land," she said.

"I hope audiences can see that this history isn't long ago.

"It's still being carried by youth today, and they need to be supported."

'Remaining Native' screens at the Sydney Film Festival Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 June.