Taking Lena Home discussion panel members Cindy S. Drake, Julie Middendorf & Alexandra Grant are pictured
here with moderator Film Streams Deputy Director Casey Logan.
The film was shown at Film Streams Theaters in Omaha on August 16, 2016.
Nearly 200 attended the screening of the new edit of the film Taking Lena Home at the Film Streams Theater in Omaha August 16. The screening and discussion was sponsored by the Omaha Public Library, the Greater Omaha Genealogical Society and Film Streams. After the movie, Film Streams Deputy Director Casey Logan moderated a panel discussion with filmmaker Alexandra Grant, Cindy Drake (Nebraska History Library Curator, NSHS & Statewide Cemetery Registry Coordinator), and Julie Middendorf, Genealogist & Librarian (Scotia Public Library). The film has been sixteen years in the making. In 2000, Los Angeles-based artist Alexandra Grant came across a curious object in a Wyoming junk shop; the tombstone of Lena Davis, a baby girl who died in 1880. Inexplicably drawn to the stone, she took it home, where it sat in her studio. Years later, she began a quest to discover the origins of the headstone, a mission that led her all the way to Polk, Nebraska, and an adventure in first-time filmmaking. Taking Lena Home documents the marker’s return to its rightful place, as well as Grant’s journey from owner of the stone to its caretaker. There are plans to screen the film again in Grand Island in October. Check in with us later to learn more details!
