Chief Spokane Garry: Indian of the Northwest by R. L. Pryor

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• published: 06 Aug 2015
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Lost for decades, the films of pioneering Spokane-area documentary filmmaker Robert Lee Pryor have been rediscovered. Beginning in the 1960s, Pryor created films about Chief Spokane Garry, the city of Spokane, and the development of the Spokane and Columbia rivers. "I decided to make films on Spokane," he said, "because of the lack in that area and feeling the pupils in SD81 need material on their city and its history." Students of Spokane Public Schools (District No. 81) and the public had the ability to enjoy Pryor's films for decades. However, when 16mm film projectors gave way to VHS and DVD players, Pryor's documentaries were effectively lost from view. Without a projector, no one could see Pryor's work until the Washington State University MASC (Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections) department digitized Pryor's Chief Spokane Garry film and posted it to YouTube in 2014. Since then, the documentary has attracted a couple hundred views, including a view by Eastern Washington University history professor Larry Cebula who commented: "Wow, I had no idea that this video existed!" I saw Pryor's Chief Spokane Garry film on YouTube, and through a correspondence with the filmmaker I was able to learn about his career. Pryor was born in Spokane in 1928 and raised in Cheney where he received his master's degree from Eastern Washington State College (now Eastern Washington University) in 1959. After a year of teaching in Oregon, he moved to Spokane and worked for Spokane Public Schools for thirty-two years. For twenty-three of those years he served as the district's Instructional Media Coordinator, a position that allowed him to screen thousands of educational films and teach himself the art of filmmaking. Also, he said, "my long time interest in 35mm slides helped me in my composition of film scenes." Pryor shot on Kodak Ektachrome film. "My camera," he said, "was a 16mm Bell and Howell and had a good fluid drive tripod." To assemble his films, Pryor said, "I used a very simple editing with a raised back that had clips for placing film clips, a viewer and two hand-cranked reels." Pryor said, "I don't recall anyone else making documentaries on Spokane in the 1960s." As a pioneer in the Spokane documentary film scene, Pryor produced Chief Spokane Garry: Indian of the Northwest in 1966, Spokane: The First 100 Years in 1969, The Spokane River in 1970, and Utilizing Fresh Water Resources: The Columbia River in 1971. In 1983, Pryor retired from the school district and moved to Idaho to live alongside one of his beloved film subjects: the Spokane River. During his career, Pryor worked as writer, producer, director, camera operator, and editor. He produced films independently with his company Northwest Film Productions, and in collaboration with the Instructional Materials Service of Spokane Public Schools. He worked with film editor R. C. Horn of Crown Film Co., artist Patricia Christensen who worked in Pryor's Instructional Media department, narrator Stanley G. Witter Jr. of KREM TV and radio, photographer William J. Benish, and Alpha Cine Lab of Spokane. In the titles of his films, he gave credit to those who lent him assistance, and acknowledged a veritable who's who of Spokane institutions: Eastern Washington State Historical Society, Spokane Public Library, Washington Water Power Company, KREM television, Lincoln First Federal Savings and Loan, Washington State Historical Society, E.T. Becher, John R. Rogers High School, and Northern Pacific Railroad. With Pryor's permission, I had his four documentary films transferred to a digital format by Jeff Tillotson at Lightpress www.lightpress.tv in Seattle in 2015. Pryor also agreed to allow me to post his films on YouTube. Chief Spokane Garry: Indian of the Northwest, 1966, 23 Minutes http://youtu.be/BW2rs3IVaqI Spokane: The First 100 Years, 1969, 26 Minutes http://youtu.be/Faw7XG1DC3o The Spokane River, 1970, 17 Minutes http://youtu.be/du6pHo3EHYA Utilizing Fresh Water Resources: The Columbia River, 1971, 14 Minutes http://youtu.be/_gJ6TMBIJpQ Pryor's films should interest scholars because they tell the history of Spokane and are a time capsule that show what Spokane looked like when he created his films. The documentaries should also interest film students because they are a sampler of 16mm filmmaking techniques: time lapse, slow motion, night photography, macro photography, sliding shots, and traditional title art. I am grateful to Pryor for giving me the opportunity to see his films and excited to have his permission to share them with people interested in Spokane's history and the legacy of filmmaking in the northwest. Lee O'Connor Lee O'Connor is author of Take Cover, Spokane: A History of Backyard Bunkers, Basement Hideaways, and Public Fallout Shelters of the Cold War, available at Auntie's Bookstore in Spokane, and on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. http://amzn.com/1496094581