After Killers of the Flower Moon, don’t miss this other gripping film about Osage culture!

If you liked Killers of the Flower Moon by Martin Scorsese, released on October 18, then you will appreciate this documentary which arrived in cinemas this week: A Bridge over the Ocean! Directed by Francis Fourcou, the film takes us from the great Osage plains of Oklahoma to the mountains of Occitanie.

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We are going to meet two indigenous peoples who speak and respond to each other. Two women tell us about two cultures with endangered languages. Isabelle l’Occitane among the Osages, Chelsea, the Osage among the Occitans, traveling through the landscapes and history of the plains of America and the mountains of Occitania.

Osages and Occitans

Francis Fourcou knew very early on this incredible story of friendship between the Osages and the Occitans. “This story was awakened by Monique and Jean-Claude Drouilhet, at the origin of the creation of Oklahoma-Occitania, who wanted to revive these very old relationships. I immediately saw a film there which would parallel the two cultures. In 2002, I therefore made a first trip, with the plan of writing the script for a film on this Osage journey to France in 1827.”explains the director.

“Television refused the project, but I took the opportunity to make a short 40-minute film with at its heart the interview with two personalities of the Nation: Lucile Robedeaux, one of the last three natural speakers of the Osage language who testifies of his pessimism regarding the future of the Osage language, and Chief Jim Gray, elected for 8 years and who had a broad vision of the history of the Native Americans.”

Jim Gray saw in the exchange with the Occitans the opportunity to broaden the Osage cultural struggle. He therefore took strong measures for the language. In 2014, during a second trip, Francis Fourcou saw that the language was finding speakers. According to the filmmaker, Mongrain Lookout, an Osage scholar and his fellow linguists created an Osage alphabet. A lesson in renewal for a hitherto oral language.

“I have this sensitivity close to indigenous cultures which strongly agitates the world of culture in America. The recent visit of the Pope to Canada to ask forgiveness from Native Americans for the crimes committed in Native American boarding schools has not yet completely reached the USA but it is at the heart of Canadian politics today. At the same time, another question, are the Occitans indigenous?”asks Francis Fourcou.

According to him, the question deserves to be asked by correcting the use of this word considered pejorative in French culture. “It is obvious that the question of language is closely linked to it. It is a battle to come to awaken this word and consider it with respect. My sensitivity to the ancient Occitan culture and my powerful interest in the phenomenon of migrations, history in general has done the rest.”

A beautiful meeting

Francis Fourcou met Chelsea, the young Osage girl we see in the documentary, thanks to Patrick Martin, the principal of the Osage school in Pawhuska. She runs workshops with children in the Native American tradition of painting horses. Chelsea wrote the first book of poems and short stories partly in the Osage language.

“This is what becomes important: a language awakens, creates its alphabet, and a writer emerges. This is the future that is taking shape. A people with their language will reconquer their culture, and now a writing, a memory , a new story. Chelsea’s trip to Occitania, Isabelle’s trip to Oklahoma reverses the usual point of view”indicates Francis Fourcou.

“The look of a Native American on our culture and that of an Occitan on the Osage culture gives an exchange in complete equality like the Occitan ‘convivéncia’. This look, I do not believe that the Occitans like the Native Americans, the Corsicans , the Bretons or others are very used to it.”

A Bridge Over the Ocean was released in theaters on October 25.