Post by blackcrowheart on Jan 16, 2006 13:35:33 GMT -5
Filmmaker dies in plane crash in Lancaster
Associated Press
www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/13618734.htm
LOS ANGELES - Gary Rhine, a Jewish filmmaker who focused on the
struggles of American Indians, died in a single-engine plane crash in
Lancaster. He was 54.
Rhine, who was also a flight instructor, was killed Monday when the
Cirrus SR20 aircraft he and a student were flying crashed in a field
near Gen. William J. Fox Airfield.
Rhine and the student, whose identity has not been released, died upon
impact.
Rhine felt inspired to focus on the plight of American Indians after a
trip to Israel, said his wife, Irene Romero.
"He really felt what he called the `American holocaust' had not been
documented at all," she said.
In his first film, "Wiping the Tears of Seven Generations," Rhine used
the 100th anniversary of the Wounded Knee massacre in 1990 to tell the
story of the Sioux Nation's loss.
"The Peyote Road" protested the 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision that
denied 1st Amendment protection to the sacramental use of peyote by
American Indians during ceremonies.
In "The Red Road to Sobriety" in 1995, Rhine showed viewers the first
Native American Alcoholics Anonymous convention in a story that showed
"how alcohol was used as a tool to annihilate tribes," his wife said.
Rhine's documentaries consistently won awards at regional and
international festivals, including the American Indian Festival.
After high school, Rhine spent a year at the University of Oregon
before joining several hundred hippies who in 1970 founded a commune
in Tennessee called The Farm. He lived there for 13 years.
While in Tennessee, Rhine met members of the Iroquois confederacy.
Later, he lived on the St. Regis Mohawk reservation in New York.
Trained as a paramedic, Rhine called himself "the butler for midwives"
as he taught American Indian communities about midwifery, his wife said.
A memorial service will be held Sunday in San Francisco. A service in
Los Angeles is being planned.
Rhine is survived by his mother, wife, three daughters, three
stepsons, and a brother and a sister.
Associated Press
www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/13618734.htm
LOS ANGELES - Gary Rhine, a Jewish filmmaker who focused on the
struggles of American Indians, died in a single-engine plane crash in
Lancaster. He was 54.
Rhine, who was also a flight instructor, was killed Monday when the
Cirrus SR20 aircraft he and a student were flying crashed in a field
near Gen. William J. Fox Airfield.
Rhine and the student, whose identity has not been released, died upon
impact.
Rhine felt inspired to focus on the plight of American Indians after a
trip to Israel, said his wife, Irene Romero.
"He really felt what he called the `American holocaust' had not been
documented at all," she said.
In his first film, "Wiping the Tears of Seven Generations," Rhine used
the 100th anniversary of the Wounded Knee massacre in 1990 to tell the
story of the Sioux Nation's loss.
"The Peyote Road" protested the 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision that
denied 1st Amendment protection to the sacramental use of peyote by
American Indians during ceremonies.
In "The Red Road to Sobriety" in 1995, Rhine showed viewers the first
Native American Alcoholics Anonymous convention in a story that showed
"how alcohol was used as a tool to annihilate tribes," his wife said.
Rhine's documentaries consistently won awards at regional and
international festivals, including the American Indian Festival.
After high school, Rhine spent a year at the University of Oregon
before joining several hundred hippies who in 1970 founded a commune
in Tennessee called The Farm. He lived there for 13 years.
While in Tennessee, Rhine met members of the Iroquois confederacy.
Later, he lived on the St. Regis Mohawk reservation in New York.
Trained as a paramedic, Rhine called himself "the butler for midwives"
as he taught American Indian communities about midwifery, his wife said.
A memorial service will be held Sunday in San Francisco. A service in
Los Angeles is being planned.
Rhine is survived by his mother, wife, three daughters, three
stepsons, and a brother and a sister.