Lost Sparrow on PBS

‘Lost Sparrow’ premiers Nov. 16 on PBS

Film explores the tragic death of two Crow boys and family’s search for redemption

By Gale Courey ToensingWhen two young Crow Indian brothers ran away from their white adoptive family’s home and were killed by a freight train more than three decades ago, their deaths devastated the family and shocked the small community in upstate New York where they lived.

Filmmaker Chris Billing was 16 years old when his adopted Crow brothers Bobby, 13, and Tyler, 11, were killed on June 27, 1978. Their deaths haunted him for years.

When Billing set out 30 years later to make a film about his lost brothers, his goal was to investigate the unanswered questions about their sudden and mysterious deaths–why did the seemingly happy well-adjusted boys run away from home that day? Where were they going? Why were they on the train tracks?

“Lost Sparrow,” Billing’s powerful and personal film, succeeds in unraveling the mystery surrounding Bobby and Tyler, but in doing so it unveils a family secret that led directly to the boys’ tragic deaths.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Native Documentaries and News.