PMA profs’ film earns spot in PBS film festival

A film directed by Jeffrey Palmer and written by Austin Bunn, both associate professors in the Department of Performing and Media Arts in the College of Arts & Science, is one of only 15 selected for the PBS Short Film Festival this year, from hundreds of nominations. 

“Ghosts” tells the story of three Kiowa children who escaped a government boarding school in the winter of 1891. Produced by Palmer, Bunn and Oklahoma-based producer Adam Ropp, the film was shot in Guthrie, Okla. and features a cast of native actors, including Lane Factor and Dalton Cramer, stars of the FX series “Reservation Dogs.”

“It’s a story I’ve always wanted to tell, and I wanted to tell it from the children’s perspective,” Palmer said. “The story is passed down as a Kiowa origin story. All of the children hear it, but it’s usually all about what was going on in the school at that time, how the children were treated. I wanted to give these kids agency.” 

The film premiered in 2022 and was chosen for more than 20 festivals in 2023, including the Skábmagovat Indigenous Film Festival in Inari, Finland and the Maoriland Film Festival in Otaki, New Zealand. 

Other meaningful screenings for Palmer took place at the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City, Okla. and the Center for the Futures of Native Peoples at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. “Ghosts” won two awards, the Film in Action Award at Ouray Film Festival in Colorado and the Audience Gratitude Award at the Centre Film Festival in Carlisle, Pa.

Carlisle was the home of one of the first and most infamous Indian boarding schools of the time, Palmer said, and the film festival took place during a symposium on the schools held at Dickinson. “There are photos of that school with Indian kids out front that are very famous,” Palmer said. “The place has a thick history that’s documented. You can find records of the kids who died there. There were a lot of Native people at the symposium, so that was an emotional screening for me.”

The PBS honor caps this year of success for the film and is perhaps its highest honor, Palmer said. The film was nominated by Catherine Rafferty, producer of the series “TV Film,” which aired “Ghosts” on WMHT, a PBS affiliate in Troy, N.Y.

Palmer is working on a number of other projects, including pitching a feature film script for this story, also written with Bunn. “When Jeff approached me with the story of three Kiowa boys’ journey home, I knew it would make a powerful adventure and survival tale, akin to ‘Rabbit Proof Fence,’ ” says Bunn. “It was an honor taking this painful footnote in Indigenous history and transforming it into a story of friendship, cultural inheritance and justice.”

Cornell alumna Gillian Harrill ‘22 was selected as an associate producer for the film shortly after her graduation.

“The success of films like “Killers of the Flower Moon” showed that people have an interest in this history,” Palmer said, adding that “Reservation Dogs” also just received four Emmy nominations. “Native representation is more than it’s ever been in film and  that’s a testament to the good storytelling that’s happening. These stories are important to talk about. It’s opening doors for all of us.”

Films selected for the PBS Short Film Festival can be viewed online, with award winners announced in late July.