{"id":31,"date":"2015-05-16T23:42:36","date_gmt":"2015-05-16T23:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lakotagirlsmovie.com\/?p=31"},"modified":"2015-05-18T13:03:10","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T13:03:10","slug":"history-comes-to-life-with-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakotagirlsmovie.com\/index.php\/2015\/05\/16\/history-comes-to-life-with-film\/","title":{"rendered":"History Comes to Life With Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_3448\"<\/a>\"IMG_4575\"<\/a>\"IMG_3433\"<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

By Carrie Moore, Custer County Chronicle
\nWednesday, July 9, 2014<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not uncommon for people to wonder what their ancestors\u2019 lives were like and what they did on a day-to-day basis. For Molly Cameron, that curiosity has been answered, thanks to her new movie, \u201cLakota Girls.\u201d\u201cLakota Girls\u201d is a full-length feature film written by Cameron and produced and directed by her and her husband, Russell. The film is about an 8-year-old girl from Pine Ridge, played by a 10-year-old Native American actress from Rapid City, and her connection with a white girl her own age.
\n\u201cThe Native American girl\u2019s parents are in an accident, so her grandmother takes her to her friend\u2019s house, a horse lady (played by Custer resident Ilona McDill), so she can visit her parents in the hospital,\u201d Cameron said. \u201cThe girl is (apprehensive) since she believes white people are mean.\u201d
\nWhile at the horse lady\u2019s home, she introduces the young girl to her granddaughter, played by Cameron\u2019s daughter, Clara. Once they get to know each other, she finds out that Clara is also Native American, introducing a 100-year flashback, featuring Cameron\u2019s great-grandmother.While the flashback is just a few segments of the movie, it is a key part of the film, said Cameron.
\n\u201cI really liked the story of my great-grandmother coming out here to South Dakota with her three sisters,\u201d she said. \u201cThey got teaching degrees at the University of Indiana. There weren\u2019t many teaching opportunities there, so they came to South Dakota.\u201d
\nDuring the flashback scenes, Emylon (Cameron\u2019s grandmother) comes to Rapid City from Indiana, where she teaches at a white school. She soon meets a handsome Native American man at the Sioux trading post and they become engaged and marry at Sylvan Lake.The scene filmed on Friday, June 27, at the Bank Coffee House in Custer was of Emylon talking to her older sister, Velma, about the man she met.\u201cIt\u2019s crazy to see this story come to life,\u201d Cameron said. \u201cI had (this memory) in my mind, so it was very emotional to see it come to life.\u201dCameron has seen photographs of her great-grandmother in South Dakota, riding her horse to school with a shotgun on her arm for rattlesnakes. In her research, Cameron found her great-grandmother\u2019s name in a census book. She also found her teaching contract from 1910.
\n\u201cI found it fascinating, first of all, that their father sent them to college and second, they were brave enough to come out here and teach,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve researched for about eight to 10 years, so it\u2019s been interesting to understand what it might have been like for my great-grandmother to come out here.\u201d
\nAnother aspect of the film Cameron wanted to touch on was the portrayal of Native Americans.\u201cI thought Native Americans are portrayed negatively in the movies and media. I wanted to show them as people, not poor Native Americans,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought it may be nicer to do that through little girls.\u201dCameron said she believes her daughter, Clara, 8, feels the spirits, which was where the idea for the story started.\u201cShe loves the things they believe, so that\u2019s where I started,\u201d she said. \u201cThis story addresses many issues. It gives a message that we are all the same with our differences and it doesn\u2019t really matter.\u201d
\nCameron held an open casting call for Native American actors ages 3-60 in April. She cast 16 for the film. She also hired actresses from Indiana to portray her ancestors.\u201cI wanted Native Americans to play Native Americans and Indiana girls playing Indiana girls,\u201d she said.Playing Cameron\u2019s great-grandmother is Alexa Raye, while Jessica Froelich portrays her sister. Both are from Indiana and have experience in films.\u201cThe guy who plays my great-grandmother\u2019s fianc\u00e9, Sam Shoulder, is from Rapid City and he is amazing,\u201d Cameron added. \u201cI had tears in my eyes at the wedding scene. The chemistry between them is really amazing.\u201d
\nThe majority of the film was shot in South Dakota with some in Indiana. In South Dakota, filming took place at the Bank Coffee House in Custer, Sylvan Lake, Glen Erin School and other places in Custer State Park, Prairie Edge in Rapid City and other locations in Rapid City and the 1880 Train in Hill City. They also filmed at a Victorian house in Rapid City and had a 1923 touring car they borrowed from a gentleman in Spearfish.
\nThe shoot will wrap in August, with months of editing afterwards.
\n\u201cWhen it\u2019s done we will submit it to film festivals and try to sell the film,\u201d Cameron said. \u201cIndie films like this do pretty well internationally. We were in Italy and Greece and told them about working on the film and they were all familiar with the Lakota.\u201d
\nJim Ankeny from Minneapolis helped with filming flashback scenes. Ankeny, a 1979 Custer High School graduate, owns Blue Earth Pictures and has over 30 years experience creating films.
\n\u201cHe has been so much help and a wealth of knowledge,\u201d Cameron said. \u201cHe \u00a0is basically teaching us how to film well. We\u2019re amazed by the footage we have so far.\u201dWendee Pettis, owner of Baby Doe Films in Hot Springs, helped with makeup and hair, as well as helping set scenes.Cameron can\u2019t wait to share her story.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s been fun to see and hear people\u2019s reactions to the movie,\u201d Cameron said. \u201cI\u2019m just really happy to be doing this and can\u2019t wait to show Lakota Girls to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carrie Moore, Custer County Chronicle Wednesday, July 9, 2014 It\u2019s not uncommon for people to wonder what their ancestors\u2019 lives were like and what they did on a day-to-day basis. For Molly Cameron, that curiosity has been answered, thanks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakotagirlsmovie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakotagirlsmovie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakotagirlsmovie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakotagirlsmovie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakotagirlsmovie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lakotagirlsmovie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126,"href":"https:\/\/lakotagirlsmovie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakotagirlsmovie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakotagirlsmovie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakotagirlsmovie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}