Fort Caspar Museum Director Steve Gainer is working on a feature-length documentary about the 1865 Battle of Platte Bridge, a skirmish between the U.S. Army and Native American tribes that resulted in the death of city namesake Caspar Collins.
Documentary Plans
Gainer, who has a background in film and television, hopes to expand people’s understanding of the battle by sharing points of view that may be unfamiliar. The museum has applied for a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities to fund the project.
The documentary will aim to place the battle in the larger context of the area’s history, with Gainer hoping to have an experience that tells the story of the land before and after the fort was built. He plans to use professional re-enactors to help bring the battle and other historical moments to life.
Gainer has a vision for the film’s visual style, inspired by Terrence Malick’s film ‘Days of Heaven’, and hopes to see the documentary get picked up by PBS or a similar entity once finished. He also plans to play it on video monitors at the museum.
Original reporting: Oil City News (Casper WY) — read the source article.
