Oh g is, folks, it sho'll die.
People say good money to see this movie.
When they go out to a theater, they want clothed sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in the protection booths.
Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring.
Got it off.
My dad always kind of filled me in on certain things that happened to us in our past, but.
I never realized how bad it was.
It's just kind of a realization moment that not everybody is taught that because it's not their history, and it is their history. Native Americans were sent to boarding schools to die. If you didn't die physically, you would come out of the school broken. My great grandfather, Frank Quinn, he ran away from this boarding school three times.
He was eight years old.
And it's like, how.
How could an eight year old cross over mountains fifty miles a couple of days. It's that it's just unthinkable.
Some of us start this race in life way farther ahead than other people when they're born, but at the end of the day, it's up to us to really make that kind of comeback.
Who was a fun little kid.
He liked to run, and there was a kid's half mile he sprinted it. It was just fast.
Now.
They always told me you are going to take you places. I just wish it could have happened sooner because I knew I had the skill, but we just didn't have resources.
College recruiters don't think about looking on the reds for their next runner.
It's not just trying to get to college. It's just not that simple. It's a lot deeper than there. I'm trying to run away to better things. It's easy to internalize trauma and let it define who you are.
Don't let yourself feel sorry for yourself.
Ever, the truth never never has start. The truth can empower you.
Know.
This is not a protest, it's a remembrance.
It's something that we're acknowledging in the past.
That it is finally coming to light. I haven't accomplished what I want to accomplish, but I'm getting theretovin Stephens.
I'm better than well.
Everything I got.
And remember why I'm.
Here because of all the different Native Americans who gave their lives down the line just to be whittled down through different bloodlines to me.
Hey, folks, welcome to a special episode of the Projection Booth I'm your host, Mike White. On this episode, I am talking with Paige Bethman and Stephanie Corey. Paige is the director and Stephanie is the editor of the twenty twenty five film called Remaining Native. Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you enjoyed the interview. Paige, I think I'll start with you. Can you tell me a little bit about how you got involved in filmmaking.
My grandmother was a christianal Mohawks storyteller, and growing up I would hear her tell a lot of stories about where maple Syrup.
Was made and who Skywoman was, and.
She just had such a gift of being able to share stories from the heart and with so much detail and excitement, and so I was really drawn to storytelling, and throughout being a teenager, I would just always gravitate towards videos, whether that was to get out of making a essay at school and offer a video project instead, or just putting my stuff animals around my house and pretending.
To be Stee Merwin.
I just always loved storytelling, and I ended up going to college where I met Steph at Ithaca College and studied TV and film there and moved to New York City and pursued The Big Dream and the Big Apple. But yeah, I think I really got into more nonfiction storytelling through Vox. I worked on the Current Affairs show. I was doing a lot of work in short form and long form documentary, and then when this project came about is when I first started doing independent filmmaking.
How often have you guys worked together.
We've had a kind of quite a bit.
I think a couple like two or three times throughout after college.
I think Seff.
Worked for Vox for a while on two different shows and then some other side projects. So we worked together with each other over the years.
And Stephanie, what brought you to editing? What attracted you about that?
I always liked. I think I fell into like film accidentally.
Like in high.
School, I had an advanced art class that I signed up for and it got canceled because there was only two students signed up and me and some other person, and the only thing that filled my schedule was video production that.
Wouldn't mess anything else up.
So I got placed in there and then I just started falling in love with editing in that process, and it would edit like highlight reels for sports teams. And then and then that's the first time it really occurags me that people do this, and I went to look for editing programs specifically, but I couldn't find any.
In college. There was like no degree for editing.
But at Ithaca they had a degree for documentary film, and I was like, that works because I basically figured. I was like, I can't make a fiction film if my life depended on it. But real life was always like so interesting, and I always have this natural curiosity that I was like, I can make films or work on films about any.
Subject matter and continue to learn. And then when I.
Was at Ithaca, I always gravitated to the editing process because even when I was filming, especially part of our program, you have to do every stage of the process so that way you understand what it is to make a.
Doc, especially because the crews are typically so small.
But every time I would always gravitate for the editing process and I would think about, like, how is this going to be put together in the end. And one of my professors, Tom Nicholson, was like, that's a mindset of an editor.
What's that relationship like and how do you two work together.
When I first wanted to make this film, I immediately thought of Steph. She was one of the first people I told, just as a friend but also someone who I've worked with in the past and who I admired per work and to be able to then to two and a half years later be looking for an editor. In the process of it, I felt like trust was like a major component. So someone who understood, you know, what I was going for with the story, someone who cared about the story, who saw the potential and the story.
And I think ninety percent of making the film is based on conversations, and I think we took a lot of time to have a lot of conversations to figure out different ways to approach the story, whether that's through crazy whiteboard online Miro. You were a Miro with like different shapes since I I was trying to articulate an
emotional arc, character arc, all these different things. But really it goes down to the footage, and Steph took a lot of time watching the footage and marking the footage and being able to tell me this is what's here,
and trusting in that process. And I think, yeah, there's a level of just like curiosity that Seth brings too of I have this idea, but what if it was approached this way, or let's try this out, or let me show you two or three versions of the same scene in different different approaches, and just being able to have an experimental mindset to be able to break the
scenes that ended up making it in the film. So yeah, it's a long process, but I definitely think being able to have like open conversations and taking space too was definitely what was able to foster such a good human environment.
But Seth, please weigh in.
I think it's really important to understand that the director, like they're there from the exception, and they've been working on it for so long that there's such a dedication. Typically in the product that I worked on, they've been working on it for so along, and there's obviously some passion that they feel so strongly about it.
And I think as an editor when.
You come in, it's really you get excited by their passion for the story, for the project, and especially by their approach and what they want to pursue, and that becomes, like Page said, the guiding kind of conversations that go into it. And then as an editor it's also understanding that you're going in there, you're seeing the media and
you're working with them to problem solve. Some of the approaches are how we can go about it, and I think that there are also some steps too, like outside of the edit, watching references or coming in reading other materials, reading other books.
Doing the research too outside of the film. That was a part of the process.
And I think something that was really great with working with Page is just the openness of being able to be so vulnerable and sharing along with the process, like this history is especially for this film, the history is heavy, and Page has our only ties to the story, and she has her own experience visit her own family history that brings it in and her vulnerability is both inspiring but also so powerful to be able to have that as an editor, to have those conversations with One thing
with working with Page that was really exciting is being able to like have those conversations, but the way she added to it too, and that collaboration of how they like evolved over time, which is really nice to see and also be a part of seeing the thought process come in.
Age mentioned the mirror boards that you guys were working on. I'm curious when it comes to the end of itself, what are you logging this footage and what are you actually cutting on now?
Cutting on premiere and logging the footage kind of looks like a marker system. So basically like we use markers in terms of specific soundbites or even like specific shots or moments, or sometimes we'd even have markers that were like, this is a really cool, like wacky kind of like lens flare or kind of crazy camera footag'd shake, but it might be useful at some other point. So it's like finding those little gems, and that's what.
Our marker sys do look like.
And then also taking notes after the fact of sitting with the scene, sitting with the material and being like, what is the scene communicating and how is it relating to the larger story? And so we'd have plenty of those conversations. So even when we had our note cards, we're like, what's the best way we can represent, Like, we know we have these sort of themes that are coming through, and what are the best representations that we have of those themes? And those note cards we would
move around on mirrors. Sometimes when we were a person, we would move post it notes because it'd just be faster, and then we'd have a layer two of just scripts that we would i would say script, but it was just like a transcript of the cut that would really help us get a sense of everything that was there and be able to see those beats kind of like read it through, because they're dealing with a story that it multi layer and and it's the whole process was
figuring out how to interweave the storylines of past and present and future. For what KU's ambitions were as a runner, we had to make.
Our edit reflect that.
So our organization of the edit was breaking down all the footage that has to deal with Ku as a teenager, his present day life, going to school, hanging out with this family, the time spent on the Reds, and then the other storylines of his running journey, so all the footage of him running for cross country and track, and then the Stewart side of the project, which is all
the boarding school archival, and then the remembrance runs. So there was a lot of different project breakdowns and they were all afined different colors.
And then when we're.
Looking at the mirror board and looking at it, we're seeing like when those things are coming up, where are they actually intersecting, and how we're able to keep the pace of the film going without being in one section for too long.
When it comes to the subjects of your films, how do they usually come to you.
This is my first feature film, and I think the other work that I've done, I think it just reflects my personal experiences. Was able to direct an episode for PBS called Native America, which followed Indigenous women in different sections of government, fashion, environmental preservation, and even comedy and music, and my experience being someone who's Indigenous being a filmmaker is just reflected in how.
I approach it.
I think this story in particular came about because of the news that broke in twenty twenty one about the Kamloops boarding school where remains of Indigenous children were found on mark Graves, And for me, it was those stories that I heard growing up of my great grandmother going to a boarding school, the reactions of community members sharing more of these stories, and then people sharing that they had no idea about this history, and I think that's
what frustrated me the most, was the absence of people understanding and knowing that this happened. And then to see a story come out about a teenager who was run fifty miles across the desert to honor his great grandfather
being seventeen. I thought, Wow, what an amazing way into this history with a modern young person, a story that can really be like an anger to be able to share this history without necessarily turning it into an explainer or like a handholding experience of walking through our digitous and not even indigenous history, because it's all history, right, not starting from sixteen forty two.
What was his reaction when you approached him and hey, do you want to be the subject of the stock He's just.
A funny person. I think his parents have been so supportive. They're so loving anything that he does. They clap for him or everything's amazing that he does. So I think when we were going to I approached his mom first to ask if I could come out to do the remembrance run and film it, and then getting to know Ku, It's almost like he's been prepared for this moment his whole life. I think there was a lot of trust building.
I moved from New York City to Reno. I've been here for three and a half years now working on this film and being a part of the community, whether that's finishing with his family and a lot of time spent without the camera when we were making the film, but really developing a relationship with him as a teenager. He's not going to tell me what he's doing. He's going to show up at my house and eat the food out of my fridge and take a nap and
move on with his day. And so I think by being able to build that relationship really reflected in what we were able to shoot because we were family at
that point. And I just wanted to add one other thing as well, which was that came out to do the Remembrance Run Steph and our composer Quino Banale, they both came and participated in twenty twenty three, ran and walked you know, miles and was able to meet Ku and his family, was able to really understand and get to know the landscape here, And I think that brought a really cool perspective into the edit by being able to be there and to bring back the ethos of the run having.
Experienced it so and that was really exciting.
Yeah, let's see Michael khn try to run a marathon, right, what kind of challenges was it to have a subject who is running. I think of so many documentaries as quote unquote talking heads. He's out running through so much of this footage. How is that? To shoot all of that?
Shooting it was really challenging and even editing it. I'm sure Step can share about editing the footage because you have a cinematographer chasing after a subject. His breathing, his footsteps go along with trying to capture Ku as a runner. But I think our cinematographer, Chai, he was a runner,
and it takes a runner to film a runner. And I think by being able to have him be up close, to not be afraid to use like the shaky camera shop to feel the actual like viscual motion of running was really important because when you watch Ku run from a distance, he just looks so effortless, and so it looks like he's not even.
Working very hard.
So to communicate that like he's training and working really really hard towards his dream, it was really hard to figure out how to shoot that and shoot how much effort it does take, And so we shot a couple of different ways. We shot on electric skateboard, shy our cinematographer around the track was on an electric skateboard, being able to control it and get really close up and shoot shadows and shoot coo like his feet and to
be able to be in the motion. We also shot on tripods on one hundred to four hundred lens like in the middle of the track to be able to track him going around and around, so when he saw in the montage in the film, we're able to match cut like a lot of different angles of the track to get that experience of that repetition that has to go into it. And then a lot of it was just like chasing him in the desert hoping that we
get the shot. We use obviously the drone to track him, but yeah, it was challenging, and I think the sound design was most important. So I think working with Kup, we had him on I brought him on my peloton at home to record like isolated breath at different paces so that way we can get his breath by itself in a container, so that way we can be able to use it to make it more of a muscle
memory effect throughout the film. And then working with our sound designer Tom Paul, who really went in and follied a lot of the footsteps and the brush and really making the whole experience be super immersive.
We actually we had three runs to pull from materials. There was the first run that page went too, and then the second run which is the bulk of the end of the film that you'll see. And then in terms of his race is it was such a gift to have all those races because it really added to just like that suit of training, that journey for Coup and I think it's the same thing with the remembrantruments.
To be able to articulate the journey, you need that amount of content and even though it may look repetitive at times, that reinforces like the feel of the journey that who was taking in terms of approaching his dreams.
And I joke because, like when I was looking at.
The footage the first time, I'm also like a former distance runner and I used to run the similar races to Coo, and I was like, he's so fast that if you don't depending on how you cut this, he's either in dead last because you can't tell how fast he is in some of these things without the contact, or he's in obviously the answer is Keith first, but it was just really funny because no one's near him, like for most of his races, Like he goes to start and he is basically out so far ahead in
terms of just blowing a lot of his competition out of the water. We really had to find those moments where he might have been lapping somebody so you have that comparison to be like, wow, this kid is really fast, or saying the times so you have that reference so you can keep up to that. Like, those little details became really important to put the context of how talented this kid is.
Pige When was the first time that you got to sit down and watch us with an audience.
Throughout the process, we did a couple of work in progress streamings. Steph and I participated in the sun Dan's edit lab when it was like assembly and that was terrifying to show anybody Bembley type of cut. I think the first real audience was held by Southwest to have the actual finished product. There there was a two hundred person theater and it was almost filled, and so it was really nerve racking to see it in that way. But previously I had shown the film to Coop and
his family. I actually went up to Oregon a couple of cuts earlier to show the film just the Coup, because this is his story. I wanted to make sure that he felt like it was representative of him and that he felt good about the film and where it was going at south By.
It was just tremendous.
Like the reception and the people who came out to the screening, we did a lot of outreach to the community. We wanted to make sure that Indigenous communities and Austin knew we were going to be there. We wanted to bring them in and invite them in. We wanted to connect with the running community in Austin, and so to have the runners in the audience who are laughing at some of.
The running humor in the movie.
Or reacting to the times or the splits that Coup is running, and then to have Indigenous folks afterwards come up to me and start sharing their own family stories and connection.
It was really powerful. And I was sitting next to Kup the whole time.
During the screening and we were just both really really emotional.
What does he think about being a movie star?
Now he's been ready for it, He's kind of expense his clothing to our production. But you know, he's always wanted to have a platform to share about his own family and his community. Even before we were filming with him, he was getting recognized for his talent and ability as a runner, and every interview that he did, he made sure to talk about his people and their needs and
wanting to advocate and bring awareness. So I think he's in this position now where he has a platform with the film, but also the film is his own way of advocating for his people through his story, So I think he likes it.
I think there was.
Times when you know, he was looking back and he's like, oh, I'm so embarrassing, which I don't know how you need to feel that way that watching the film, But there are things that didn't make it in the film that he's Okay, don't film my prom or this. I messed up chopping this wood well, I.
Didn't want us to show.
But I think overall we have a good relationship and he's excited for the opportunities to come.
Can you tell me a little bit more about the workshop when showing that assembly cut and like how you guys work together to fine tune everything in that editing.
Process with the edit lab, bro, you basically arrived with like a rough cut or your assembli at like where you're at for the full film, and then you show that and you spend.
The week working on like a section of that film.
And so for us, we really like dove into figuring out the themes we figure. We basically re edited the beginning of the film, and then that's where we came up with the imagine sequences and leaning into that whole
idea in that week of the edit lab. So it was really great for us to be a part of that and then also take the time to bit more talk largely about some of those things that we were honing into, because at that point we had started to carve things together and then we continued to carve that post into things, you know, like Paige had mentioned, the.
Interweaving of the story.
A breakthrough in terms of our process with editing, I think is one we did actually focus in on the storylines, and so we looked at the individual storylines, which was like Kho's running journey, and then there was another like Kho's personal life, and then it would be Togo's story.
And seeing those storylines individually helped us hone in on what the repetitions were, what wasn't hitting, where the emotional beats that we really needed to land, and then also draw connections in the moments where we could find those interreadings.
It also highlighted to us to the way that the imagines when you go into those archival sequences, they really immerse you into a specific kind of like space in the film, and we had to keep certain things in I would say like chunks for lack of a better word, but like informational pieces, so that.
Way you weren't getting lost when you came out of the other side of the story page.
What's next for the film? Where is it going to show at? And where can people keep up with the movie and the.
Screenings WWI quw dot remaining nativedocumentary dot com. We have been listing the next festivals and screenings as they come in and as they are allowed to be publicly announced, and so right now our next festival is going to be at the Salem Film Festival in Massachusetts, and then we are going to be at the River Run Festival
in North Carolina. We're doing two community screenings here in Nevada in April, and so That's about all I can say right now, but it will definitely be populating our web page as more gates come in for the festival screenings. And we're still seeking distribution and we're hoping that the film will get an opportunity to reach a really wide audience.
Page and Stephanie, thank you so much for your time. It was great talking with you.
Thank you so much, appreciate it
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