Home From School: The Children of Carlisle

The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers connects US-based documentary filmmakers with communities throughout the South for screenings and conversations around important stories and the art of filmmaking. This special screening of HOME FROM SCHOOL: THE CHILDREN OF CARLISLE will be followed by a post-film discussion with Director Geoff O'Grara and O Cinema's Director of Programming Matt Walter.

THE FILM

“Kill the Indian in him, and save the man” was the guiding principle of the U.S. government-run Indian boarding school system starting in the late 19th-Century. The program removed tens of thousands of Native American children from their tribal homelands, and through brutal assimilation tactics, stripped them of their languages, traditions, and culture. The students were forced through a military-style, remedial education. Most children returned emotionally scarred, culturally unrooted with trauma that has echoed down the generations. Many students never returned home, having died at the schools. Home From School: The Children of Carlisle dives into the history of the flagship federal boarding school, Carlisle Indian Industrial School, and follows the modern-day journey of the Northern Arapaho Tribe as they seek to bring home the remains of three children who died at Carlisle over 100 years ago. To move forward they need to heal from the past, and in doing so they forge the way for other tribes to follow.Released in 2021, HOME FROM SCHOOL: THE CHILDREN OF CARLISLE is a co-production of Caldera Productions and Vision Maker Media and nationally broadcasts on the PBS series Independent Lens. It was nominated for a 2022 Heartland EMMY award for Best Documentary in Cultural Programs and was awarded the 2022 Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Documentary. Home From School has been an Official Selection at 18 film festivals and has won top juried prizes at six festivals.

SPECIAL GUESTS

GEOFF O’GARA (Producer, Writer, Director)For over 20 years, Geoff worked for Wyoming PBS as on-camera talent, writer, and documentary producer. Currently, he is the President of Caldera Productions, an independent documentary film company that tells stories rooted in the American West. His productions have won a variety of prizes, including a Heartland Emmy and National Educational Television Association (NETA) nomination for The State of Equality (2019), Ferret Town (2019), Heartland Emmy award for best documentary Will Rogers & American Politics (2011), and NETA’s top prize for documentary Alan K. Simpson: Nothing Else Matters (2012). Geoff is also the author of several books, one of which, “What You See in Clear Water” (Knopf), is about the Wind River Reservation, and won the Spur award for best nonfiction from the Western Writers of America. He is a former editor of High Country News and is published in many national publications. Home From School is Geoff’s third feature documentary that he has directed with Caldera Productions.