Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

January 2, 2009

'Lost Sparrow' at Slamdance




Film on deaths of two Crow brothers premieres at Slamdance, alternative to Sundance

Chris Billing, Director/Producer, Lost Sparrow
http://www.lostsparrowmovie.com/
The documentary Lost Sparrow will premier at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, UT on Friday, January 16 at 12:30 pm at the Treasure Mountain Inn’s Main Screening Room. The film will also screen on January 20 at 3 pm in the Gallery Screening Room.
Lost Sparrow is the culmination of filmmaker Chris Billing’s two-year investigation into the tragic deaths of his two adopted Crow Indian brothers, Bobby and Tyler. The probe uncovered dark family secrets, but also led to healing and redemption. A brief synopsis is below.
Lost Sparrow features music by premier Native American flute player R. Carlos Nakai. The film’s website is www.lostsparrowmovie.com.
Lost Sparrow synopsis
On June 26, 1978, two Crow Indian brothers ran away from home. Early the next morning, they were struck and killed by a freight train. Their mysterious and sudden deaths sent shockwaves through the tiny, upstate New York community of Little Falls. No one could understand why Bobby, 13, and Tyler, 11, had run away from the white, Baptist family that seven years earlier had adopted them and their two biological sisters out of a troubled home on the Crow Reservation in Montana .
Their adoptive home – a vast 19th-century Victorian castle – seemed idyllic. But the boys had discovered a dark secret. They were killed as they tried to return to the reservation to get help for their sister Lana.
In the documentary film Lost Sparrow, filmmaker Chris Billing investigates the tragic deaths of his adopted brothers Bobby and Tyler, and confronts a painful truth that shattered his family.

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