LA CROSSE (WKBT) — Casey Brown and Rob Reider can add another achievement to their resumes.
In November, the film contributors won an Emmy for their work on “Exploring the Artistic Process of Truman Lowe.” Lowe was a sculptor and installation artist who taught at UW-Madison.
This was the first Emmy award Ho-Chunk Nation ever received.
“I never went in thinking an Emmy was on the horizon,” Brown, who produced the film, says.
The tribe took home its first Emmy at the 65th Chicago/Midwest Regional Emmy Awards. They won for outstanding achievement for Arts/Entertainment Short Form Content.
“My goal with this relationship with the partnership is education. Getting the word out there,” Reider, who also contributed to the film, tells News 8 Now.
The short film reflects on Lowe’s legacy, a UW-L student from Black River Falls. Lowe became a UW-Madison professor, teaching art and serving as the chair for its department. He influenced many students.
“He was certainly someone that inspired me growing up,” Brown says. “I knew of Truman. I kind of just knew him as a guy in town that did weird art, weird being good for me. It was very interesting unique art.”
Brown and Reider beat out two other films for the award. But making this movie was no cake walk.
“Truman has since journeyed on. We’re not able to get the story directly from him. But through some of the different videos we had of him, we were able to piece it together,” Reider explains.
“There’s so much to be said. We can do an entire documentary on Truman like his entire work and there were things that we had to leave out,” Brown says.
In 2022, UW-L dedicated the Center for the Arts to Lowe. Brown and Reider are hoping to work on other films. They range from different acts impacting Native Americans to artisans.