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Patricia Keith is documenting the world with a video camera
From the depths of Hells Canyon and its mining and ranching history to the political upheaval in the mountains of Tibet and the jungles of Burma, Dr. Patricia Keith records video for her documentaries. (Photo by Sean Cassidy)
By Jack McNeel Lewiston’s Patricia Keith has gone from a teaching career to filming documentaries. “It turns my adventures into the kind of travel I like – opportunities to meet people and learn more about their lives,” she explains. “I don’t need to go into any more museums.” Following her earning a Ph.D. from Brandeis University, Patricia heard the call of the west and with big Colorado trees in mind arrived in Lewiston in 1983 to teach English at Lewis-Clark State College (LCSC). When she arrived, she thought, “Hmm, this isn’t my idea of the west.” Laughing, she says, “It took me about a year to realize I’m kind of a desert rat. Now I can’t imagine living anywhere else in the world.” In her semi-retirement, Patricia still teaches one course that she developed seven years ago. Known as the Hells Canyon Institute, it was designed to be one semester with students taking a full load of courses while living in Hells Canyon. “But given the nature of LCSC students, that didn’t happen,” Patricia explains. “We do spend a week during spring break living in Hells Canyon. It is a lot of fun. I have faculty from geology, history, botany, all over the place, involved in the class.” It is now to a threecredit upper division, interdisciplinary course. Her first documentary, a thirty-minute film about the mining operation at Eureka Bar, was filmed about twelve years ago in Hells Canyon. Now documentaries occupy much of her time. Patricia’s first longer ones, each about an hour and twenty minutes in length, dealt with Tibet and Burma. “I call them my Oppressive Regime series.” Patricia returned to that region last January and found conditions somewhat different –increasing oppression in Tibet but more openness in Burma and optimism about changes being made by the government. She has an agent who books the films into places that want to meet the filmmaker. “These are often civic organizations that have travel film series. Sometimes they are universities that have film series. It kind of pushes the envelope for people who are doing travel film series. The films are much more oriented to people and culture rather than sites to see. They’ve been shown on both coasts and everywhere in between,” she (Continued on page 38) adds.