Paige Bethmann on Storytelling From the Heart

Your Fellows project, the film Remaining Native, tells the story of Ku Stevens, a 17-year-old Native American runner who struggles to navigate his dream of becoming a collegiate athlete and the memory of his great grandfather’s escape from an Indian boarding school. How did you come to this story?

In 2021, news broke in Canada of 215 unmarked graves of Indigenous children at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. I was working at Vox Media at the time producing long-form nonfiction content for a current affairs show, and I started seeing an outpour of reactions from relatives, community members, and folks all across Indian country. I came across an article a family friend shared about Ku and his plans to retrace his great-grandfather’s 50-mile escape from Indian boarding school at just eight years old. I was so inspired and moved, not only by the visual opportunity of filming running across the high-desert, but because this teenager was doing something to honor his family’s story, and in that moment, I knew I wanted to find a way to honor my family and acknowledge my great-grandmother who was a boarding school survivor as well.

Remaining Native is premiering at the SXSW Film Festival this month; congratulations! What do you hope the audience will take away from the film? Do you have different goals in mind for Native or non-Native audiences?

The film places emphasis on healing, hope, and joy, showing one young person’s journey towards a deeper understanding of self, community, and culture, learning to balance individual success without abandoning identity. I hope Ku’s story is a reminder that we can run in parallel with our histories, simultaneously remembering our past while moving forward towards a future that doesn’t have to be defined by trauma. I want audiences to feel empowered to look inward and interrogate their own relationships to land, culture, and history. For both Native and non-Native audiences, I hope they feel inspired and understand that healing is possible, while never linear. It can exist in spaces where we come together with openness, respect, and love.

You have a background in making nonfiction television for various digital and broadcast networks. How did you find your passion for storytelling and your voice in storytelling?

When I was a little girl, I used to sit at my grandmother’s feet and listen to her tell stories about the Haudenosaunee. A traditional Mohawk storyteller, she explained to me how the birds got their songs, how maple syrup was made, and who Sky Woman was. Story after story I was in awe of my grandmother and her ability to articulate every detail from memory. One day, I asked her how she could recall these stories without a book. She smiled and said, “When stories are passed down they remain in the heart not the head, and I always remember what’s in my heart.”

My work as a filmmaker has often been driven by stories that encourage introspection. I push myself behind the camera with the passion that my grandmother had for storytelling, taking time for every detail whether or not it’s deemed ‘important.’ While I think working in mainstream media and nonfiction television gave me a skill set and a platform to hone my production knowledge, I think my time creating Remaining Native is where I’ve started to find my voice, one that’s speaking from the heart.

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