June 05, 2008

Eyre and Studi film Ridge story

Chatsworth:  Film crew documents drama of Cherokee tears“Cut!” called director Chris Eyre.

As the camera stopped rolling, a film crew of about 100 people began changing scenes, rearranging lights, patting sweat from actors’ brows and resetting microphones.

The crew is making “We Shall Remain,” a five-part documentary drama for the Public Broadcasting Service’s “American Experience.” They arrived here last Thursday and will remain through Friday, taping at the Chief Vann House Historic Site in Chatsworth, Ga., the New Echota Historic Site near Calhoun, Ga., and Red Clay State Historic Park in Cleveland, Tenn.

The filming here will be part of segment three in “We Shall Remain,” a series described by PBS spokesmen as “a provocative multi-media production that establishes Native American history as an essential part of U.S. history. The entire series covers 400 years, ending in 1973 with the occupation of Wounded Knee.”
Studi's role:With the director’s signal to break from taping Thursday, actor Wes Studi—who plays Major Ridge in the film’s dramatic re-enactment—slipped out the door of the hot, upstairs room in the Chief Vann House. A native Cherokee, Mr. Studi, who played Magua in the 1992 movie “The Last of the Mohicans,” said he never has played the part of a Cherokee in a commercial film.

“It’s important to me. It’s a story about our people,” said Mr. Studi, who’s performed in films such as “Seraphim Falls,” “Skinwalkers” and “Heat.” “Most of the stories told about this time in the Cherokee nation have been slanted toward the John Ross faction. This story is told from the viewpoint of the Ridge treaty party.”

Mr. Studi and the filmmakers said the film will show not only that the Cherokee of the time were not stereotypical of most Hollywood drama but were a growing and civilized nation with emerging political factions.

New Echota, where the Cherokee capital moved when Tennessee pushed the Indians south of the Tennessee River, was a model town with frame homes, farms, a courthouse and a post office.

In one scene, Mr. Eyre said, the character Major Ridge rides on his plantation to a fence being constructed by his slaves.

“They are as wealthy as any people in the East for that time. They had plantations, slaves, mansions,” he said. “I’ve never seen that image (on film) before, and I think those are the kinds of things that make people say, ‘Wow.’”
Comment:  Now I see the backstory behind my previous posting on Eyre: Chris Eyre does Tecumseh. He's directing some or all of the We Shall Remain segments.

What I don't see is how he squares the job with this quote: "I don’t see the value in films that show the past. They all end the same way—the Indians die."

Oh, well. I guess "the value in films that show the past" is that they pay the rent.

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.

14 comments:

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
writerfella said that very thing about the rent sometime a long way back on this very website. Wow, what an echo this place has!
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

dmarks said...

Yes, I can still hear "In my screenplay ANASAZI...." echoing off the Rock's walls.

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
And you will hear of it many times more, because the screenplay issues forth with an actual Four Corners canyon, complete with the huge carving of a man's face on its walls, as the total inspiration for the story. The canyon exists, the story exists, the screenplay exists, and so does writerfella. writerfella still suspects that dMarks is a figment or even a figleaf of Rob Schmidt's fervored and fevered imagination...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

Rob said...

What a surprise that we're talking about Anasazi again...not.

What doesn't exist in your canyon is artifacts made of gold, silver, or other metals. We know this because the Anasazi didn't use metal. As I explained in Anasazi = Ancestral Puebloans?

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
Hey, scold dMarks. He broached the subject this time around.
And, no, that's what YOU know or purport to know. writerfella did exacting research for years to write ANASAZI and still is continuing that research, while all you do is surf the internet believing everything you read and disbelieving everything you don't.
There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your internet, Horatio...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

dmarks said...

Yes, I mentioned the "ANASAZI Screenplay" first in this post. That's 1 time from me and 832 times from you. But I'm catching up!

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
Bet dMarks also could tell you how many times he washed his hands yesterday and then checked the windows and doors to see if they're locked. But...
Glad someone's keeping count, dMarks. You've helped writerfella realize he is falling down on the job.
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

dmarks said...

Hey, I'm Dmarks, not Dmonk!

Rob said...

Re "writerfella did exacting research for years to write ANASAZI and still is continuing that research": So what? I did exacting research for years to write PEACE PARTY and I'm still doing it. I must've read two dozen books on the history of the Pueblo tribes and their ancestors, the "Anasazi." I read the Hopi and Indian Country Today newspapers cover to cover for almost a decade. I've seen several documentaries on the subject. I've visited and explored several Anasazi sites in person. And I've surfed the Net, found academic references, and quoted them.

As far as I know, you haven't done any of these things. In fact, as far as I know, you're fibbing about your so-called research. If you have any evidence that the Stone Age people known as the Anasazi used metals, go ahead and provide it. Put up or shut up, mouth.

Rob said...

I'm curious, Russ. How many books on the Anasazi have you read? How many of their sites have you visited? Does your "research" consist of anything other than wild speculation by Von Daniken-style theorists? If you've read the work of a single respected archaeologist or historian, it isn't obvious.

Maybe your made-up version of Anasazi culture--with its treasure of precious metals and gems and its mysterious magical lights--is why no one has produced your screenplay. Even someone who knows nothing about Indian cultures has to know your version is phony. Ancient ruins and artifacts with mystical powers...if this isn't the oldest Indian cliché in the business, it must be in the top five. If I were a producer, I'd do what other producers have done and avoid it like the plague.

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
writerfella has 23 books on the Anasazi, has a subscription to the annual Anasazi research conference, and has enlarged his own Anasazi database every year at one and the same time. Did you know, per exemplum, that (ca. 2007 research results) that the Anasazi mingled with Plains tribes and spread their culture while adopting Kiowan tenets within their culture? The Anasazi even took the name for Barringer Crater, 'Thanh-Ahn-Ote-Kyah-Daw' into their own representations? It was in all the papers...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

Rob said...

Good for you. Sounds like you may have read almost as much as I have.

Now quote some of your research from respected archaeologists and historians. Prove that a single one of your claims has some validity.

Rob said...

Uh, the Anasazi didn't have a written language and no one recorded their spoken language. So we have no idea what they called Arizona's Meteor Crater. Unless you believe their language continues in the languages spoken by their descendants, the Pueblo people, that is.

I've visited Meteor Crater and learned about the Anasazi presence there firsthand. How about you? Is your crater lore something else you've gleaned from skimming Von Daniken?

Since the Kiowan-Tanoan language family includes several languages spoken by Pueblo people, it's not surprising that the Kiowa interacted with the ancestral Puebloans (the Anasazi). The northern Pueblos interacted with Plains tribes in historical times, so it's likely their ancestors did also.

Incidentally, a search for "annual Anasazi research conference" turns up nothing by that name. Are you talking about the Occasional Anasazi Symposiums? If so, they aren't annual. Another search suggests the most recent one, the sixth, was in 2000.

Anonymous said...

Greatest movie ever made. Have watched it numerous times. Wess Studi was wonderful.