The Cleveland Who? is a feature documentary that archives and investigates cultural and emotional responses to the Cleveland baseball team’s name change from the Indians to the Guardians. Nearly five years after the transition, the film examines how the change continues to resonate across Northeast Ohio and beyond. Through interviews with local baseball fans, Cleveland-area American Indian community members, and team personnel, the film captures a range of perspectives on identity, tradition, and representation in sports culture and geographic pride. Interweaving personal testimony with historical and cultural context, the documentary situates the name change within broader national conversations about culture, heritage, traditions, and symbolic change. The accounts reveal that those who call Cleveland home are not in consensus with how the past has influenced the present.
The Cleveland Who? ultimately uses the lens of a beloved local institution to explore how communities process change, confront history, and define themselves in the present.
Baldwin Wallace University has loaned production resources to the project, and we are grateful for their support.
The Cleveland American Indians has also lent their support to provide relevant historical backgrounds, consulting for interview question drafting, and facilitation assistance.