Remaining Native with filmmaker Paige Bethmann

A boy running alone on a dusty desert road.

Remaining Native is a coming-of-age documentary told from the perspective of Kutoven “Ku” Stevens, a 17-year-old Native American runner, struggling to navigate his dream of becoming a collegiate athlete and commemorate his great-grandfather’s escape from an Indian boarding school.

Ku Stevens is the solo runner at his high school with no coach. Living on the Yerington Paiute reservation in Northwest Nevada, he needs more to be seen by his dream school, the University of Oregon, and sets out to run a collegiate qualifying time.

As he trains, Ku unearths unreconciled emotions surrounding the memory of his great-grandfather Frank Quinn, who at 8 years old ran 50 miles across the desert to escape an Indian boarding school. Frank’s story becomes interwoven with Ku’s journey and running begins to connect past, present, and future. But will Ku outrun his history, or will he learn to run in parallel with it to achieve his dreams

Filmmaker Paige Bethmann will join for a post-screening conversation.

Free admission! Sponsored by the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program and cosponsored by the Department of Performing & Media Arts.

Part of our “New Visions, New Voices” and “Doc Spots” series. Remaining Native film website.

About the filmmaker
Paige Bethmann is a Haudenosaunee woman and feature filmmaker based in Rochester, New York. Over the last 10 years, Paige has worked in non-fiction television for various digital and broadcast networks such as ESPN, PBS, Vox Media, Youtube Originals, USA, and NBC. Her directorial debut REMAINING NATIVE premiered at SXSW, winning a special Jury Award and Audience Award. Her work has been supported by the Sundance Institute edit and story lab, the International Documentary Association, Doc Society, and the Points North Institute. In 2024, Paige was named in DOC NYC’s 40 under 40 documentary filmmakers to watch. She is currently a BAFTA Breakthrough recipient, highlighting her as one of the most exciting new voices in documentary film.

Paige has been supported and recognized by Tracksmith Running Fellowship (2021), IDA/Logan Elevate (2022), Points North Institute CNN American Stories (2022) PGA Create (2022), 4th World Media Lab (2023) BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship (2023), DocSociety Climate Story Unit (2023), Sundance Edit & Story Lab (2023), DocLands DocPitch (2023), CMP’s Shifting Voice’s Film Fund (2023), Big Sky Pitch (2023), and the New America Fellowship (2024).