So, I am going to Newfoundland as a Fulbright Student. There's this awesome folklore library at Memorial University in St. John's where they have been collecting folklore and family stories since the 70's from people on the island. My plan is to write a novel set in the area that incorporates this folklore.
As part of this project (and because I am trying to learn iMovie) I decided to collect some regional and family stories on my way to Newfoundland (sometimes partial stories, anecdotes, jokes with no punchline). My process goes like this: I wait until everyone has had a glass of wine or two, then I bust out my camera, turn it on, and ask annoying questions. Because I am a guest, people are usual polite.
This first movie is about Bonanza, Colorado where my friends are building a house. As the movie explains, the population is 14. I met up with their son (and my former roommate), Noah, in Minneapolis where he is going to college and he told me this story:
dana--i may be wrong but the drunk woman did not hit a sign of a cow. i believe that the sign the woman smashed in bonanza was the historical marker. the sign mostly describes the town's boom and eventual bust, ending with a bit about a fire in the 30's, the last major event in bonanza. the other sign, the one she didn't hit, talks about the environmental cleanup following the mining. is her choice of sign to ram into symbolic? you be the judge.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right. I should have included a disclaimer about the film being inaccurate, but then, this is the way that art messes around with history: livestock rather than mining, a UFO instead of a fire. Perhaps I will next conduct a mock interview where the mock-woman explains her intentional avoidance of the "clean-up" sign (erasing the tragedy, preserving the heroism, yada, yada).
ReplyDeleteI don't understand how to comment. My profound comments seem to keep disappearing. Trust me they are highly insightful comments. I'm serious.
ReplyDeleteI get it. I had to sign in first. I would like some financial compensation for my fence being used in your movie without my permission!