{"id":14385,"date":"2017-01-11T10:21:34","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T18:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=14385"},"modified":"2019-09-05T15:39:57","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T23:39:57","slug":"filmmaker-mat-hames-what-was-ours-qa","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/filmmaker-mat-hames-what-was-ours-qa\/","title":{"rendered":"Filmmaker Mat Hames Goes to Wind River to Amplify Native Voices"},"content":{"rendered":"

Award-winning filmmaker Mat Hames\u2019s feature documentary, When I Rise<\/em><\/a>, about African American mezzo-soprano and civil rights icon Barbara Conrad, was featured on Independent Lens<\/em> and nominated for an IDA Documentary Award. One of Mat’s other films, Last Best Hope,<\/em> about the Belgian Resistance during WWII, eventually led to him being knighted by the King of Belgium.\u00a0The Austin-based Hames found\u00a0himself in a very different place, Wyoming’s Wind River Reservation, for a number of years so he could patiently and properly tell the story of Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone people attempting to bring back sacred artifacts from museums so they can eventually create their own museum. The resulting film, What Was Ours<\/em><\/a>, which premieres on Independent Lens<\/em> on PBS Jan 16 at 10pm [check local listings<\/a>], won Best Documentary Feature at the American Indian Film Festival and was a selection in the\u00a0Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian Native Cinema Showcase. Hames spoke to us about how he ingratiated himself slowly within the Wind River community, about the challenges of telling a Native story that non-Native audiences won’t dismiss, and gives us some updates on what Mikala and Jordan are up to now.<\/p>\n

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Why did you make want to make this film?<\/b><\/p>\n

What Was Ours <\/span><\/i>was made over the course of 13 trips to the Wind River Reservation during a period of four years. I wanted to make a film focusing on three people who represent the past, present, and future of a reservation. As a boy, my family took annual hiking trips to the mountains, and I tried hard to memorize the names of the peaks. One day I learned that each mountain once had an older Arapaho name, and I wanted to know what they were. My family visited \u201cEagle Plume\u2019s,\u201d an Indian art store nestled at the base of Long\u2019s Peak in Colorado, where an old Arapaho man named Charles would tell us jokes and stories. He knew all the old names, but I wondered who would remember those names once he passed on. <\/span><\/p>\n

In 2011, I was working with Wyoming PBS on a project to create a digital archive<\/a> of ancestral objects for the Arapaho and Shoshone tribes. After many trips just visiting with the elders over meals, I came to understand that some were upset that their ancestors\u2019 artifacts were now in the hands of non-Indians, with collectors, museums, and churches. I wanted to help amplify their voices and follow their journey to learn about these objects so I started to make a film about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Philbert

Philbert hunting in the snow on Wind River reservation<\/p><\/div>\n

How did you meet the film\u2019s subjects (Philbert, Mikala and Jordan), and why tell a story with three people?<\/b><\/p>\n

At a tribal elders meeting I attended, Philbert McLeod arrived early. I was told it was unusual for Philbert to \u201cput himself forward.\u201d Immediately I was drawn to him. He spoke native Shoshone, was shy and humble, but he loved to make jokes. He agreed to an interview, and wanted to talk about his experiences in the Vietnam War as a helicopter gunner and the Shoshone object that kept him alive, which turned into 5 different interviews over the course of a few years. I believe he was trying to help me understand the human connection to these artifacts. I met others in different ways. Jordan Dresser was a journalist, then 27, and Mikala Sun Rhodes was a 17-year-old high school student at the time. Jordan and Mikala\u2019s parents were so supportive of them, and I fell in love with their extended families. \u00a0The three emerged as one way to represent the past, present, and future of Wind River. Weaving three stories together became a way to tell one story.<\/span><\/p>\n

How did you ultimately gain their trust?<\/b><\/p>\n

Slowly. I made a few trips just to talk to people long before any filming. My first step was to gain permission from the Tribal Councils, who were generally supportive but asked me to meet elders. So I spent some time going to lunch or dinner with elders and listening to their concerns. The whole project took 4+ years and many trips to the Wind River Reservation. I think once the tribal elders saw that I kept coming back up there again and again, they realized I wanted to truly make a film, rather than meet a quick deadline or feed into some larger narrative I had presumed to be true.<\/span><\/p>\n