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“Lost Sparrow,” the documentary directed and produced by former Little Falls resident Chris Billing, will air on PBS in November as part of the “Independent Lens” series.
The culmination of Billing’s two-year investigation into the tragic deaths of his two adopted Crow Indian brothers, Bobby and Tyler, the feature-length documentary has struck a cord with audiences across the country and has kept the Washington, D.C., resident busy.
“I knew going into this project that it would require two years of my life to film and edit it, but now it is three and four years later and this film is still a major part of my life,” said Billing. “The film has taken me to film festivals, college campuses and conferences, and once it airs on PBS in November, there will be another roll out that will keep me busy. The film certainly keeps me going.”
Billing was 16 years old on June 27, 1978, when a 44-car Conrail freight train killed his two brothers. Their deaths devastated his family and sent shockwaves through the city of Little Falls and beyond, as no one could understand why Bobby, 13, and Tyler, 11, had run away from the family that seven years earlier had adopted them and their two sisters, Lana and Janelle, out of a troubled home on the Crow Indian reservation in Montana.
In making the film, Billing traveled to Montana, Florida, North Carolina and upstate New York, interviewing people involved in the lives of the two boys, including their biological sisters, their adoptive parents and siblings, their biological father, the social workers who oversaw their adoption and the police officers who investigated their deaths. He also secured newspaper articles, adoption records, police reports, family scrapbooks and miles of super 8mm home movies.
“It’s an intensely personal film,” said Billing. “I often say that if I had known going into it what the process required to make the film was, I would not have done it. But looking back, I’m very proud of the film and I’m glad I did it. It’s a very important film, one that will have a long shelf life.”
He added that he did not try to give easy answers to questions that did not have easy answers, and said he decided to make the documentary when he was working as a journalist in China.
“It had always been within my mind to explore the question of what happened to my two brothers,” said Billing. “It was a story that I had to tell, and I knew that this was a film that could have meaning.”
“Lost Sparrow” was screened at last year’s Canal Celebration in Little Falls, and Billing said the reception it received from the audience gathered at Valley Cinema will be difficult to top.
“The reception from the people of Little Falls is something that I will never forget,” he said. “It was great to be able to see so many familiar faces in the audience, people I grew up with. I returned to Little Falls to film the documentary, and saw friends and acquaintances then, but it was nothing compared to the screening during the Canal Celebration. That was just a tremendous event.”
As for the prospect of being able to reach a national audience of millions with his film when it airs on PBS, Billing said he is excited and looking forward to its premiere.
“It’s something I am really looking forward to,” he said. “It certainly will be an exciting time.”
Billing worked for more than a decade as a China-based journalist, including a five-year stint as Beijing bureau chief for NBC News (1996-2001). During his NBC tenure, he reported on numerous historic events, including the death of Deng Xiaoping, Hong Kong’s reversion from British to Chinese rule and the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
“Lost Sparrow” was Billing’s second documentary. His first, “Up to the Mountain, Down to the Village,” returns three members of China’s “lost generation” to the remote and impoverished villages where they were sent as teenagers for a decade of re-education during the Cultural Revolution.
Billing currently has a position with Radio Free Asia in Washington, D.C.
“Lost Sparrow,” the documentary directed and produced by former Little Falls resident Chris Billing, will air on PBS in November as part of the “Independent Lens” series.
The culmination of Billing’s two-year investigation into the tragic deaths of his two adopted Crow Indian brothers, Bobby and Tyler, the feature-length documentary has struck a cord with audiences across the country and has kept the Washington, D.C., resident busy.
“I knew going into this project that it would require two years of my life to film and edit it, but now it is three and four years later and this film is still a major part of my life,” said Billing. “The film has taken me to film festivals, college campuses and conferences, and once it airs on PBS in November, there will be another roll out that will keep me busy. The film certainly keeps me going.”
Billing was 16 years old on June 27, 1978, when a 44-car Conrail freight train killed his two brothers. Their deaths devastated his family and sent shockwaves through the city of Little Falls and beyond, as no one could understand why Bobby, 13, and Tyler, 11, had run away from the family that seven years earlier had adopted them and their two sisters, Lana and Janelle, out of a troubled home on the Crow Indian reservation in Montana.
In making the film, Billing traveled to Montana, Florida, North Carolina and upstate New York, interviewing people involved in the lives of the two boys, including their biological sisters, their adoptive parents and siblings, their biological father, the social workers who oversaw their adoption and the police officers who investigated their deaths. He also secured newspaper articles, adoption records, police reports, family scrapbooks and miles of super 8mm home movies.
“It’s an intensely personal film,” said Billing. “I often say that if I had known going into it what the process required to make the film was, I would not have done it. But looking back, I’m very proud of the film and I’m glad I did it. It’s a very important film, one that will have a long shelf life.”
He added that he did not try to give easy answers to questions that did not have easy answers, and said he decided to make the documentary when he was working as a journalist in China.
“It had always been within my mind to explore the question of what happened to my two brothers,” said Billing. “It was a story that I had to tell, and I knew that this was a film that could have meaning.”
“Lost Sparrow” was screened at last year’s Canal Celebration in Little Falls, and Billing said the reception it received from the audience gathered at Valley Cinema will be difficult to top.
“The reception from the people of Little Falls is something that I will never forget,” he said. “It was great to be able to see so many familiar faces in the audience, people I grew up with. I returned to Little Falls to film the documentary, and saw friends and acquaintances then, but it was nothing compared to the screening during the Canal Celebration. That was just a tremendous event.”
As for the prospect of being able to reach a national audience of millions with his film when it airs on PBS, Billing said he is excited and looking forward to its premiere.
“It’s something I am really looking forward to,” he said. “It certainly will be an exciting time.”
Billing worked for more than a decade as a China-based journalist, including a five-year stint as Beijing bureau chief for NBC News (1996-2001). During his NBC tenure, he reported on numerous historic events, including the death of Deng Xiaoping, Hong Kong’s reversion from British to Chinese rule and the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
“Lost Sparrow” was Billing’s second documentary. His first, “Up to the Mountain, Down to the Village,” returns three members of China’s “lost generation” to the remote and impoverished villages where they were sent as teenagers for a decade of re-education during the Cultural Revolution.
Billing currently has a position with Radio Free Asia in Washington, D.C.
