>>Dr. Swan: You know an an arena of expressive culture that we haven't talked about yet is
that of film--
>>Dr. Nelson: Yeah.
>>Dr. Swan: --and it's such-so rich and so vibrant there there's an amazing energy not
just in Oklahoma but but nationally and internationally for for Native film. Could you talk to us
a little bit about that?
>>Dr. Nelson: I I would love to. [laughs] And the challenge would be to, for me to quit
talking about film, right. You're absolutely right. It's one of the most exciting spots
for self-expression going on in indigenous country anywhere. and recognizing that we
started the Native Crossroads Film Festival here --
>>Dr. Swan: Mmhmm.
>>Dr. Nelson: -- at OU, we hope to be in its second year in the fall of, oh sorry, in the
spring of '14. The first one went great and as it turns out I think people are just really
excited to see American Indian films. They're telling stories in different ways, they look
different even to some degree. I don't think that you could say there is an indigenous
aesthetic visual, but I think there are certainly visual differences coming out of American
Indian films. In the same way that there would be with art, right?
>>Dr. Nelson: There are some comparable things happening. But as it turns out, American Indians
have been involved in film here in Oklahoma almost since film's beginning, right. Recently
the historical society unearthed a a silent film, Daughter of Dawn, that featured a lot,
I mean A LOT, of American Indian performers, especially the folks out west - Kiowas and
Comanches. And recently they had a showing, right, where they were able to see this film
for one of the very first times after its restored and they were recognizing their family
members up there on the screen. That was, I think, really fantastic. You know, Will
Rogers, again, --
>>Dr. Swan: Mmhmm.
>>Dr. Nelson: -- was very early on involved in film and did some really pretty funny stuff.
He did some, you know, kind of formulaic stuff too [laughs], as --
>>Dr. Swan: Right.
>>Dr. Nelson: -- happens to everybody. But some of his work with John Ford is really
worth looking back at. It's it's relatively complicated, even as Ford was making stuff
like The Searchers and Stagecoach, you know, that that featured Indians dying by the droves
off of the back of horses, he was working with Will Rogers very closely on three films.
Where even though he's not playing American Indians, there's something really kind of
complicated about the racial identities that he is playing in there. A few years later,
well several years later, guys like Bob Hicks --
>>Dr. Swan: Mmhmm.
>>Dr. Nelson: -- Creek filmmaker, did a short film called Return of the Country that looks
back at some of those stereotypes of American Indians in films and starts telling things
in much-decidedly different and again, very energetic and often times parodic ways. Really
fantastic stuff going on there. There were a few other guys that sort of nobody really
knows about. There were some brothers, Edwin Carewe and his brothers Wallace and Finis
Fox were Chickasaws. And, you know, for a long time we thought that Smoke Signals was
the very first --
>>Dr. Swan: [laughs] Right.
>>Dr. Nelson: -- film written and directed and produced --
>>Dr. Swan: To discover the genre.
>>Dr. Nelson: -- yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. As it turns out these guys were making tons
and tons of movies in the 1950s. A lot of them were kind of terrible, truth be told
[both laugh]. And kind of a B roll of short films --
>>Dr. Nelson: -- but they were working with guys like Bela Lugosi doing these horror films.
>>Dr. Swan: Yeah, in Guthrie. A lot of people don't know that one. [laughs]
>>Dr. Nelson: I don't think I knew that! That's-no kidding.
>>Dr. Swan: Yeah.
>>Dr. Nelson: Oh how interesting. [Dr. Swan laughs]. But as it turns out, that legacy
may have been forgotten, but a lot of filmmakers, contemporary filmmakers, sort of didn't care.
And they in many ways kind of re-invented the genre.
>>Dr. Swan: Yeah.
>>Dr. Nelson: So what we're going to watch by Sterling Harjo is doing some fantastic
things. As as people watch that, you know, I think they ought to pay attention to especially
things like the relationship the camera has with the land. How it is that color is getting
used to tell part of the story there in very subtle kinds of ways. Too, we'll see films
in this unit by Jeff, Jeff Palmer --
>>Dr. Swan: Mmhmm.
>>Dr. Nelson: -- who's doing some real kind of very interest --
>>Dr. Swan: Experimental work, yeah.
>>Dr. Nelson: Yeah, yeah yeah. It's-it doesn't make everything very obvious, it's not going
to declare to us its purpose.
>>Dr. Swan: Mmhmm.
>>Dr. Nelson: But one of the things that it will do is speak very evocatively to us. And
and to just kind of sit and watch and let it unfold can really turn into a powerful
experience.
>>Dr. Swan: So perhaps a new chapter in the storytelling traditions that come out of not
just the Kiowa community but but Native communities in general?
>>Dr. Nelson: I think that's really astutely put. Yeah to see how it is that people are
adapting their stories to contemporary mediums into places even like YouTube where anyone
can get and and, and post what it is that's coming out of their hearts and minds is carrying
on a long line of adaptation.
>>Dr. Swan: Mmhmm.