Documentary - Elise Paschen: In Her Own Words

Screen shot from Elise Paschen: In Her Own WordsElise Paschen 

Elise Paschen’s poetry reflects her life and her heritage. She weaves together images from her childhood with stories of the Osage Nation and their native land in Oklahoma. In the 38-minute documentary, Elise Paschen: In Her Own Words, she shares her personal story, which offers a glimpse of the tragedy, the triumph and the excellence of the Osage people. 

She begins with her mother, Maria Tallchief, the first American prima ballerina, who was once married to the famed ballet choreographer George Balanchine. “She continued dancing until I was about seven years old,” Paschen says in the film. “I was technically a backstage baby. I got to sit and watch my mother perform in Hamburg Germany and various theaters around the world.”

Screenshot from Elise Paschen: In Her Own WordsNew York City Ballet Archives 

Paschen recalls a Hamburg performance when her mother danced Cinderella. “I remember being mesmerized with that ballet,” she says. “There were doves perched on her shoulder and, at the end, I think the carriage goes up into the sky. So, it was this very magical performance to witness.”

Along with the magic, Paschen saw the hard work behind it when, during a performance, her mother would catch her breath in the wings. “She was a great model of discipline and dedication to your art form and also just sheer brilliance as an artist on stage.”

When her mother retired from dance, she turned her attention to raising Paschen. “I too had to get strait As and be the best athlete and be the best person on the stage with drama and plays,” she tells the viewers. “She really instilled in me this sense of doing everything to the best of my ability.”

Early on, she realized her future would not be in dance. Her passion carry her down a different artistic path. “I had the right figure but I wasn’t very flexible,” she says. “Fortunately, at a very young age, I discovered poetry.”

Paschen credits her mother, and her grandmother, for inspiring the determination and drive in her own career. She studied at Harvard and earned a master’s and doctorate at Oxford. She has penned six poetry collections and served as Executive Director of the Poetry Society of America. 

Screenshot from Elise Paschen: In Her Own WordsOsage Nation Museum 

She earned a Newberry Library Fellowship, in 2001, to research and write about the Reign of Terror, a dark time in Osage history, when Osage women were married and killed for their oil headrights. Her poem Wi’-gi-e, which means prayer, inspired David Grann, author of the 2017 nonfiction bestseller Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. Paschen is credited in that book and in the award-winning film adaptation of the same name, directed by Martin Scorsese.

The documentary was produced by the Palast Investigative Fund, a nonprofit known for bringing to light important journalistic stories that have not been widely shared in the mainstream media. “I used to tell people about the rein of terror and no one knew about it,” Paschen explains. Now, through her writing, Grann’s book, and Scorsese’s film, those stories of terror and transcendence are finally being told.