(light dramatic music) (dramatic upbeat music) - Welcome to "TV Film".

I'm Jermaine Wells.

"TV Film" showcases the talents of upstate New York media makers across all genres.

In this episode, we begin with a film from Kiowa director and Cornell faculty member, Jeffrey Palmer.

"Ghosts" is based on the true story of three Kiowa boys daring escape from a government boarding school in Oklahoma in 1891.

- "Ghost" was based on a true story.

It was an oral history that was passed down of three Kiowa boys that escaped a boarding school in 1891.

And the true story is that they traveled back to their encampment, which was 30 miles away, and this was in the wintertime, in the middle of winter.

And they unfortunately died or perished from hypothermia in a blizzard that came through.

I was told that story when I was a child and it always stuck with me and resonated with me.

The film itself is really focusing on the escape from the boarding school because that's what we could get into 15 minutes, basically as a short film.

But I think it means something more than that, that we we focus on that there's sort of an idea of survival and empowerment I think for indigenous people that have sort of broken the chains of colonization and assimilation which is really what boarding schools are about.

Having their languages taken away and who they are, their identity.

And so in a lot of ways, I think "Ghost" is a metaphor for Kiowa people.

It's who they are, it's why they survived, I think, is because it's part of this idea of escaping colonization, right?

I thought about this, I thought, you know, why would they escape?

There's not very much written in historical record about it.

And so I thought, "Well, let me give these boys agencies because I grew up as a Kiowa kid in Carnegie, Oklahoma" which is not very far from Anadarko.

So I thought maybe I could have some type of empathy for what they had gone through, and I thought maybe a ghost dance is what they would be going back to.

Really what it is, it's a way to revitalize or bring back the old days, essentially.

That was what the ghost dance was used for.

I think we're at a moment in really rethinking US history and understanding the untold stories in history in the United States, and boarding schools are really a part of that, those untold stories.

And there have been these recent finds of unmarked graves, certainly in Canada, this has been going on for many years now and they actually had reconciliation with First Nations people about this particular issue.

United States is different.

We're just now really starting to crack open this historical moment and they are now starting to find these unmarked graves and repatriating the children back to tribes.

"Ghost" falls into this moment of healing, I think, for Native people because we've known this story for a very, very long time.

But it's also a moment of educating non-native people about this history.

And a lot of people don't know.

They have no idea, When you shed light on it, I think, that it really is important and opens doors to discourse and communication and that's the most important thing.

The aspect about "Ghost" is that I think that it's a story that leads to discussion.

(bugs trilling) (speaker speaks foreign language) (bugs chirping) (bugs trilling) (light dramatic music) (metal clatters) (door thuds) (whip snaps) - *We will beat the savage out of you if you won't obey.

(somber music) (speaker speaks foreign language) (eerie music) (water sloshing) (bugs chirping) (dancer chants in foreign language) - [Nurse] The wounds will heal in time.

Charles?

(dancer chants in foreign language) (students speak in foreign language) (somber music) - Come now, let's get you to bed.

I'll have to see to this doorknob.

(floor creaking) (somber music continues) (bed squeaks) - Oh Lord, oh God.

Create in me a new heart, and a new right soul in me.

In the name of Jesus I pray, amen.

(bed squeaks) - Amen.

(students speak in foreign language) - We can't, it's too far.

- Did you cry?

- Leave him alone.

- They stop when you cry.

- The ghost dance is starting, Seta.

Grandfather calls to me.

(Seta sighs) - Your grandfather is dead.

(bugs trilling) (birds chirping) - Boys, you will repeat after me and then spell each word I say.

Your first word shall be servant.

- [Students] Servant.

S-E-R-V-A-N-T. - Trouble.

- [Students] Trouble.

T-R-U- - Start again.

- [Students] T-R-O- - [Teacher] O.

- [Students] O-U-B-L-E. (light dramatic music) - Brave.

- [Students] Brave.

B-R-A-V-E. (bugs trilling) (dove coos) (suspenseful music) - [Teacher] We will beat the savage out of you if you don't obey!

(Seta sighs) Start again!

- [Students] Brave.

B-R... - Tonight we go.

We'll follow the river downstream.

- Grandfather will protect us.

I'll tell Paul.

- He'll never make it.

(student speaks in foreign language) - Speak English, boys.

You know what will happen if you don't.

(logs thudding) (dancer chants in foreign language) (bugs trilling) (grandfather speaking foreign language) (somber music) (floor squeaks) - [Student] Seta.

(suspenseful music) (footsteps tapping) - [Seta] Shoes, get your shoes.

(shoe slams) - What devilment is this!

You heard me, Paul.

Put those down.

- [Student] Sir?

- [Teacher] What do you know about this?

- [Student] He didn't want to wet his bed sir.

- That's ridiculous.

He's too old for that.

- [Student] That's what I said.

- Get to bed.

(door thuds) Open this door!

- [Nurse] Judah?

- [Teacher] Open this door immediately!

- Judah, what is going on?

- [Teacher] Open this door immediately!

(suspenseful music) Catch them!

(bugs trilling) (Seta panting) (metal clangs) - Charles, Judah!

- This will not be tolerated!

(bugs trilling) (dancer chants in foreign language) - You should not be out here.

You need to go back.

- We're going home.

(groundskeeper speaks foreign language) - The ghost dance is starting.

The ones we've lost are coming back.

(student speaks foreign language) (bugs trilling) (ancestors speak foreign language) (water sloshing) (student speaks foreign language) (ominous music) (bugs trilling) (water sloshing) (grandfather speaks foreign language) (somber music) - Next, musician and artist Nicholas Kopp takes us inside his headspace in a piece of audio visual improvisation.

"A Chaotic and Colorful Mind."

(light music) - I really started out as just a drummer, and started taking lessons around the age of eight, nine, 10, and was really impressed by an early performance I saw of the Blue Man Group and I really left that performance really changed on a molecular level, I feel.

The relationship between humans and technology has always fascinated me, and so I kind of moved forward out of drums and into electronic music and started doing some of that and then I got some more inspiration along the way for some film stuff which was really just setting up my phone in my backyard a little outside of Saratoga and putting it on time lapse and taking videos of the clouds.

And the first one I made in early 2017 was called "Spring" and that one was very simple, very bare bones, and then fast-forward to last year, 2022, when I made one I had all these sunset, all these time lapse cloud things.

I was like "I need to get all of these out."

And I made this one film called "Liquid Sunset."

"Chaotic and Colorful Mind" started out as a still image that I made in Photoshop using a series of generative actions, meaning each time you do it, it'll return a different result.

So you can put the same image in five times and get five different results.

And I had this piece of music that was also generative, meaning I have some pieces of gear that will take the sound that I'm putting into it and almost a sonic collage out of it.

This particular one I titled it "A Chaotic and Colorful Mind" because I was looking at, it was my desktop background for a while, and I was just looking at it a lot.

And I looked at it and I'm like "You know, this is kind of how my mind works is mile-a-minute but really, really beautiful stuff going on but really, really chaotic."

The inward journey of that with the particular video pulling in in the slow zoom was something that I found to be speaking to my mental experience internally.

(light music) (intense electronic music) (intense electronic music continues) (upbeat music) - Learn more about the films and filmmakers in this season of "TV Film" at wmht.org/tvfilm and be sure to connect with WMHT on social media.

I'm Jermaine Wells.

(dramatic music) - [Narrator] "TV Film" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the governor and the New York State Legislature.