Links University of Illinois Press (Carl Ekberg's book) Saint Genevieve Tourism Information: Felix Vallé House State Historic Site: Cahokia Illinois sites: The Historic New Orleans Collection You can also access a radio interview with Dan Johnson and Bob Streit
on Morning Conversation, WSIU in Carbondale at: listen to the 30 minute interview on St. Louis public radio’s
Cityscape at: RiverFront Times, St. Louis, MO St. Louis Magazine On-Line HEC TV 26, St. Louis, MO KMOV TV 4, St. Louis, MO Bob Streit's web page
Dan Johnson's web page
Confidence Man- a new documentary
New independent film calls attention to Native American slavery-
interview with A team of Southern Illinois filmmakers created a new film with a distinct 18th century flair. Under These Same Stars is a new historical film based in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri in the year 1773. The film tells a tale of romance and intrigue between a young Native American slave woman and a half-French, half-native hunter. The film’s dramatic premise may appear to be a creative work of fiction. But, in reality, the film is based off of historical documents found in Ste. Genevieve, and later studied by historian Carl Ekberg, who wrote about them in a scholarly text called Stealing Indian Women: Native Slavery in the Illinois Country. “It is a romance. It is a mystery. Some would say a murder is involved,” says Dan Johnson, Dr. Ekberg nephew and the film’s director. “It’s really primarily about the time and place. Ste. Genevieve in 1773. It was a time of a very diverse group of people coming together on the frontier. And the issue of Native American slavery is kind of underlying the whole thing. It’s kind of a new subject in American history.” Mr. Johnson, who lives in Alto Pass, Illinois, is a sculptor and filmmaker. He teamed up with screenwriter Bob Streit to develop the film’s script. The female lead, Marianne, becomes romantically involved with a hunter, Céladon. But she must make a choice between leaving her life as a slave in Ste. Genevieve and joining Céladon in the Missouri wilderness. To modern audiences, according to Mr. Streit, Marianne’s choice would seem like a no-brainer. “Slavery bad, freedom good, off we go,” Mr. Streit says. “But she had two children from a previous relationship who were very young. And at two years of age her tribe lost a battle with another and she was sold down the Missouri River to St. Louis to the French and then down to Ste. Gen to the Aubuchon family. She had been enslaved by Native Americans.” As Mr. Streit sees it, it was a hard sell to convince Marianne to set out into the Ozarks, filled with bears, mountain lions, and unfriendly tribes. The filmmakers tried to remain faithful to Dr. Ekberg’s book, which itself was based off of the testimony of an investigation into the death of one of the characters. Due to the nature of the source materials, Mr. Johnson says that the filmmakers had to develop their own interpretation to answer important questions. “Why would a Céladon, a trapper, want to have a woman in the woods with him?” Mr. Johnson asks. “Of course, the testimony that the story is based on does not address that specifically, so we’ve had to adjust the story to some degree to rationalize the motivation behind people’s actions back then. It may be a modern take, but it’s our take. It’s what we decided made sense for that time and place.” Following a screening of the film in Ste. Genevieve, Mr. Streit says that they received good feedback from the audience, which included the descendants of many of the characters who were onscreen. Mr. Streit is content that they chose to take few liberties with the script and did not sensationalize the story with shoot-‘em-up scenes or other non-historically-accurate elements. He feels that the filmmakers did their best to stay as true as possible to the story and to the characters. “These people really lived,” Mr. Streit reflects. “These people really loved and suffered and went through a lot of stuff. Their kin was in the audience, and if we had turned them into caricatures … how awful that would have been.” Under These Same Stars is an independent, self-financed film that predominantly features local actors. Bob Streit, for instance, not only wrote the screenplay but also played the role of Juan Oliver, the lone Spanish official in the Spanish-controlled territory. They also made good use of friends and associates who had props and customs, as well as Mr. Johnson’s skills as a sculptor. Just as importantly, Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois’ provided a unique rural backdrop for Céladon and Marianne’s tale. “We used the homes there in Ste. Genevieve for our sets. We use the Mississippi River, which we live by, as our set. We use the woods that we actually live in as our set. So it worked out quite well for us not to have to build a lot of extraneous settings and just use what it available,” Mr. Johnson says.
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