“I’m also trying to tie it into what we’re doing to the Indigenous people now, because history resonates,” he said. “Even today, because of what happened back in the past, I do believe that it has an effect on our relations with minorities today.”
Hitchcock received the $1,000 grant on Feb. 10 and has begun putting together a production crew. So far, he has a director of photography, an editor, and a researcher. His researcher, David Cornelius, is a Native American with Algonquian, Mohican and Oneida ancestry and a degree in Colonial and Native American history.
Darren Bonaparte, a Mohawk writer, artist, and cultural historian from the Akwesasne First Nations, feels that this story is one that needs to be told.
“To me, when people are taking a second look at the American Revolution, I try to get them to look with a little bit more detail,” he said. “Both the African American and the Native American people that were caught up in it. And it wasn’t just, you know, a bunch of patriotic slave owners deciding they wanted their own country. People are being a little bit too quick to summarize a very complicated story. … I get involved in a lot of these history projects. And I’m always trying to urge them to be a little bit more nuanced and I hope this current project is like that.”
The documentary is due in August, but despite the short timeframe, Hitchcock’s biggest concern is the pandemic. He is doing his best to follow state and federal guidelines, but filming a documentary while social distancing isn’t an easy task.
“Hopefully things will get better,” he said. “Because I would like to have a group of people to depict what life was like. And they can’t do that wearing a mask.”
This project is different from Hitchcock’s usual style of filmmaking. For one, he has a crew.
“There was one project that I did for the United Nations,” he said, “and it was about climate change in the Adirondacks. And I had to carry my camera up in the Adirondacks, interview people and get B-roll up there all by myself.
“But this is different, because it’s opened up a lot of other talents that’s really going to help me with my project … because these people are professionals in their field.”
As he finalizes his script, Hitchcock is on the lookout for actors for re-enactments. He hopes to start shooting in the summer. The film will be about 30 minutes long, he expects.
“I believe it’s gonna … play a small role to help with the racism between Indigenous people and Caucasian people,” Hitchcock said, “and other people. And I can’t change the whole system all at once with one documentary, but I’d like to play my part. And I believe that this could help.”
While researcher Cornelius is proud of his heritage and has made his career studying and researching it, he still has his doubts about the impact of what he’s working on with Hitchcock.
“I’m relatively pessimistic about changing people’s views, especially these days,” he said. “Why? Well, right now there’s a Native American woman at a hearing in Washington for the Department of Interior, and she is being discriminated against, and probably will not get the position. And the Department of the Interior is the department that relates to Native Americans. Native Americans are considered flora and fauna. They’re not considered humans, basically, by the U.S. government. … So, you talk about discrimination – there it is today right there.”
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