Words from a Bear
Documentary | Jeffery Palmer
- SYNOPSIS
Words from a Bear examines the enigmatic life and mind of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Navarro Scott Momaday, one of Native America’s most celebrated authors of poetry and prose. The film visually captures the essence of Momaday’s writings, relating each written line to his unique American experience representing ancestry, place, and oral history. Cinematically this story takes audiences on a spiritual journey through the expansive landscapes of the West, when Momaday’s Kiowa ancestors roamed the Great Plains with herds of buffalo, to the sand-painted valleys of Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico, where his imagination ripened and he showed superior writing skills as a young mission student.
84 minutes
Release: November 18, 2019
Expiration: November 18, 2023
Distributor: American Masters & PBS Plus
Rights: Six (6) releases over four (4) years beginning 11/18/2019;
SCH/1YR (for K‐12); and non‐commercial cable rights.
About the Filmmaker
Jeffrey Palmer (Kiowa) is an Indigenous filmmaker and media artist. As a Dean’s Fellow at the University of Iowa, he received his M.F.A. in Film and Video Production in 2012, with an emphasis in documentary film and video installation. He also received his M.A. in Native American Studies, focusing on Native American exploitation in early cinema and his B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Oklahoma. He was a visiting professor at Cornell University and is currently an assistant professor of Mass Communication at the University of Central Oklahoma.
