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closeHans Erchinger-Davis is grateful he was allowed to film Lummi carvers as they delivered a Sept. 11 memorial totem pole to the Pentagon four years ago.
As a non-Indian, it took time for him to get the OK from Lummi leaders. Once permission was granted, the trip enabled Hans to pursue his passion of making documentaries that explore what makes people tick.
“I was very moved to be a part of it,” he said.
The result is his new documentary, “The American Carver.” The film premiered last month in Seattle and will be shown this fall at Pickford Cinema.
The Pentagon totem was the last of three Sept. 11 poles carved by the House of Tears Carvers at Lummi to honor the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and to stand as symbols of hope and caring for surviving families.
The first pole was installed in New York in 2002; the second in Shanksville, Pa., site of the United Flight 93 crash, a year later.
While the first two were being carved and dedicated, Hans was busy working on a master’s degree in Christian studies at Regent College, in Vancouver, B.C. He is now a chaplain at Lighthouse Ministries.
A Bellingham native, Hans returned home in 2003 to be closer to his future wife, Janel, and to earn money. When Hans learned about the Pentagon totem, Janel suggested that he make a movie about it for his master’s thesis.
“By the time I got home I’m thinking, ‘Yes, this is an epic story, let’s do this,’” he said.
Hans’ school adviser decided the project wasn’t “Christian studies enough” for a thesis, but Hans pursued the idea anyway.
After the trip, Hans, 31, edited his 54 hours of footage down to the film’s 60 minutes on evenings and weekends. He prefers the “direct cinema” approach to films, with no on-screen interviews or voice-over narration to explain what’s going on.
“I love catching history as it unfolds,” he said.
It’s a high-wire approach that requires viewers to pay close attention, but can reward them with unblemished glimpses into the people on the screen.
Hans agreed to stop filming whenever the carvers asked, and they exercised that right many times, he said. Still, revealing moments shine through.
In a memorable scene, tense feelings between master carver Jewell James and Frank Cordero, a leader of military veterans at Lummi Nation, surface during a poolside stop on their journey to the Pentagon. It appears the men might part ways in the middle of the trip, but they apologize, tearfully embrace, and continue on to Washington, D.C. In another scene, James delivers an impromptu speech about the totem journey during a stopover at a Texas steakhouse. While he talks, the local diners’ responses range from polite attention to grumpy displeasure to noisy indifference as they cut into their slabs of beef the size of large dinner plates.
In time, the totem pole — actually two poles, each 13 feet tall, with a 34-foot arch connecting them — was erected near the Pentagon for a ceremony that mixed government protocol with American Indian prayers and tribal regalia. James remains the film’s focus as he works to honor victims of the Sept. 11 attacks even as he continues to grieve his loss of a son and daughter in separate traffic accidents on Lummi Reservation.
“He cares enough to do something like this,” Hans said. “This is a major undertaking.”
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