My Movies

My Elko To-Do List

Don’t get me wrong—I love New York—but I’ve spent most of this trip daydreaming about the spectacular adventures that await me next week in Elko. Here’s what I’m looking forward to…

How about you?

Posted by Kristin on 01/21/10 at 08:36 PM
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Done, by the Skin of My Teeth!

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Over the weekend, I shipped off my film for this year’s National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. I guess it’s slightly ironic that I did this from New York City using an FTP server, but such is the life of a nerdy cowgirl. One day I’m in Blocksburg trying to shove the last cow into a stocktrailer, and the next I’m in Manhattan attempting to squeeze myself into a crowded subway car. It can be surreal at times, but I’ve learned over the years that I’m most comfortable at the opposite ends of the spectrum—it’s those parts in between that can make me anxious. (And lucky for me, cowboy boots are back in style for city girls this season. Makes me a little tougher to spot.)

I’m pretty excited about this year’s effort, which is called “Hello, Goodbye! A guide to waving in the country.” I am particularly grateful for all the help I received from my marvelous momma (Bev) and friends Luke Knowland and Tim Ziegler. There were countless other good-natured friends and neighbors who (somewhat surprisingly) went along with all sorts of my shenanigans this year. There is no way I could have ever finished without their help.  And when you see it, I think you’ll be forced to admit that I know some darned good-looking people! I wish they could all be in Elko with me!

The film will show as part of a larger program of shorts for the Deep West Video Program on Thursday, Jan. 28, and Friday, Jan. 29, at 11 am at the Elko Convention Center. I will also post it here after the Thursday program.

Posted by Kristin on 01/20/10 at 06:09 PM
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Self-Promotion Inspires Me to Write Again

The Western Folklife Center just put up my most recent short film, “What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?” Yay!

Posted by Kristin on 03/11/08 at 02:17 PM
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Story Machines is Online

I just noticed that the Western Folklife Center put my short from this year’s National Cowboy Poetry Gathering online. If you didn’t get a chance to see any of the Deep West Videos this year, be sure to check them out. Mine was in very good company!

Posted by Kristin on 06/03/07 at 01:10 PM
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Story Machines

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After three weeks of late nights--and yes, a few tears--I just finished my short for this year’s National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. It’s all about my grampa and his PhonOcord. Thanks to Marco for the music, which we recorded in my kitchen. I’m sure that alone would have made Grampa very proud!

Posted by Kristin on 01/25/07 at 08:48 PM
Permalink • My Movies •

Outlaws, Dynamite, and Really Nice People

Sometimes people do really, really nice things! Take my friend Taki Telonidis at the Western Folklife Center for example. When I asked him for advice about how to clean up a 1970s cassette recording of my great grandfather explaining how he and his brother moved a herd of horses from Montana to Washington in 1903, Taki said, “Oh, just send me the file. I’d be more than happy to do it for you.” He made it sound like it was just a lil’ ol’ thing, but after receiving his new and improved version in the mail a few days ago, I’m pretty sure he spent a fair amount of time on it. I was so excited (and grateful) that I converted it to streaming Quicktime over the weekend so I could share it here with you. There are still a few parts where it is difficult to understand (particularly right at the beginning), but there are some things technology still can’t fix.

Great Grandpa Jack was just a teenager when most of this story takes place, and it is not short on thrills and excitement. There is even some gunplay as they try to cross the Flathead Reservation without paying the required toll. They had very little money at the time and simply couldn’t afford it (at one point they even have to trade horses for food). One of the things that interested me most about his tale, though, is the political and sociological picture he paints of life in the Northwest around the time of the trip.

His brief mention of the dynamite-induced destruction at the Bunker Hill Mine in Idaho was something I’d never heard about before, and I immediately had to find out more. What I learned is there were large and violent labor strikes in 1892 and 1899 at the mine because Bunker Hill had managed to remain non-unionized. When Governor Frank Steunenberg--who entered office as both a Democrat and a Populist--asked the federal government to send troops to quell the unrest in 1899, the miners felt betrayed. The troops rounded up and held hundreds of men in “bullpens” without hearings or formal charges, and a few even died. Steunenberg was later killed by a bomb at his home in 1905. Big Bill Haywood, a prominent figure in the labor movement at the time (and a founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World), was one of three people charged but later acquitted due to lack of evidence. I recently picked up the very thick and detail-packed Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America by J. Anthony Lukas, which is about these events. I’ve only read a few chapters so far, but I feel comfortable recommending it if this sort of stuff interests you.

Additionally, Grandpa talks about the outlaw Harry Tracy, who escaped from an Oregon prison in 1902 and (according to Grandpa) shot up Cle Elum, Washington, as well as some other places before finally being tracked and killed by a posse. Hollywood made a movie about it in the 1980s starring Bruce Dern and, it turns out, Gordon Lightfoot (Sundown, you better take care...)? Anyway, Grandpa claimed to have owned one of Tracy’s guns.

Posted by Kristin on 10/08/06 at 09:17 PM
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