“North Star” Shines a Light on the Real Annie Oakley

“Everyone knows Annie Oakley. Almost no one knows her real story.” That’s how the Greenpoint Film Festival introduced the film “North Star” on its Instagram page. Nearly 100 years after her death, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish myths from fact when it comes to Darke County’s most notable daughter. This new short documentary is setting the record straight about the Darke County legend, and it got a lot of help from three legendary Annie Oakley researchers from Garst Museum.

Bryn Silvervman, the director of “North Star”, recently discussed the movie before its premiere in Greenville, Ohio. It couldn’t be more appropriate for the film to be shown in front of a sold-out audience in this small city. This city, this county is where Annie Oakley called home and even though she travelled the world, it was still home and it is where she lived out her final days before passing away on Nov. 3, 1926, at the Zemer-Broderick Boarding House, 227 E. Third St., Greenville.

Although there have been other documentaries and films made about Annie Oakley, this one is different from the rest. Silverman said she not only wanted to tell a truthful story about Oakley, she said this film also tells the story of three researchers who have spent a good portion of their lives researching Annie Oakley and keeping her story alive. The researchers featured in the film are Karen Besecker, Nancy Stump and Brenda Arnett.

Silverman admits that it may have not been the film or documentary she envisioned at the beginning, but as she got to know Besecker, Arnett and Stump, she realized it was the story that needed to be told.

The filmmaker had toyed with the idea of a film about Annie Oakley and knew her as a public figure. She was shooting another project in Louisville, Ky. when she realized Oakley was from Ohio and not to far from where she was. She did a little research and learned about Garst Museum and its National Annie Oakley Center. “So, I drove up there and it was really when I got to Garst and met the researchers, Karen, Brenda, and Nancy, who are the heroes of the film. That was what really did it for me. Karen, she just, I remember really distinctly this moment where she was just like, don't believe everything you've learned about Annie Oakley. And I was hooked.”

Silverman said she was drawn to the diligence of their research. She said the story is definitely about Annie, and she felt a connection with how Annie expressed herself in a career field that wasn’t necessarily designed for her.

More than that, Silverman developed an obsession with the research and relationships she was developing with the women at Garst Museum. Over the course of four years, she kept coming back to work on the research and shoot the film. She admitted the original plan was to create a scripted piece, but the “goalpost” shifted.

The director admitted some ideas for films don’t ever pan out and they end up going nowhere, but Silverman said she “kind of fell into the wormhole of Annie and never, never left.”

She admits she had some preconceived ideas of who Annie was before her research. “I grew up in Oregon and there’s the narrative of the Wild West and the personalities that make up the Wild West are very strong. But I don’t think there was as much of an education surrounding it. There wasn’t really a filter of what was real and what’s hyperbole and what was created by the spectacle of Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show.”

Silverman said she probably thought Annie was something akin to a cowgirl but didn’t know much else. “She really was an athlete. The women at Garst compared her to Serena Williams or a superstar like Madonna because she sort of balanced the entertainment of it all with sheer athleticism.

Annie’s upbringing also surprised Silverman. She said after spending time in the area Annie was born and raised, North Star, Ohio, she tried to imagine how extreme the seasons were during the late 1800s, and the poverty Annie grew up in. She believes Annie’s poverty and willpower were a driving force for her to make a career for herself. “It’s incredible. To think that she went to Europe multiple times. She was like a global superstar at a time when you barely had telegrams,” she said.

"I’ve met people from all walks of life who relate to Annie in one way or another, like on the left side of the spectrum, on the right, in the center, politically she’s a very versatile historical figure. I don’t know if there’s a lot of people like that. She’s not a really polarizing person,” said Silverman. She believes most people know of her as an entertainer, but the film hopes to add more nuance to her as a person and an athlete.

The project, from research to post-production, took approximately five years to complete. A screening of the uncompleted version was held in Greenville about a year ago. Silverman admitted this story was difficult to edit. Although it is Annie’s story, her biopic, through her interactions with the researchers from Garst it became more. “But it’s also a story about these women, the researchers at Garst and kind of a love letter to them and to the work that they’ve done over the decades and to women and researchers like them all around the country who are doing similar work at museums and research centers. So, it was a hard balance to find in the edit. It was like, is this a story about Annie or is it a story about the women? And when we found that balance, that's when I knew we were almost done.” She continued, “My emotions are with the women. My emotions are with like Karen, Brenda, Nancy, and the respect that I have for them. And Annie, but it's like she lives on through them.”

She recalls getting a little push-back from some people who thought the film needed to be about Annie only. She said, “I was like, no, but it's also about them.”

Silverman is insistent that Besecker, Arnett and Stump get what is due them. “I just want them to get their flowers,” she said. “I want them to know that I see them, and people see them and that their work is valued and that they are, that they are the proper Annie Oakley experts of the universe. They are the most educated Annie scholars in the world. And I don't think that is the way they are talked about in Greenville, but those are the facts. I've been all over the world now with this film, with the research, and the festival circuit, and that fact remains true.”

Although the researchers are the stars of the show, Silverman said she was thrilled to add Emmy-nominated Dale Dickey to the mix to voice Annie Oakley. Dickey’s list of credits date back to the mid-1990s in film, television, and Broadway. She earned her Emmy nomination for her role as Rosemary on Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay.

Silverman said, “I saw her do her thing. It was just incredible. I mean, she transformed. And some of the lines that you'll hear in the film, which all the voiceovers are pulled from Annie's quotes or first person from her autobiography. It's all Annie's real voice. And then Dale is voicing Annie, but it's all real quotes from Annie. And she really tapped into some of what Annie was feeling.” She added, “It was really incredible to hear the emotion in her voice when she was speaking the lines about Greenville and Darke County at home and wanting to be back home by the rivers and talking about the nature.” She pointed out that Dale is from Tennessee and said you could feel the connection she has with Tennessee as it relates to Annie’s connection with Darke County.

If you missed “North Star” during its premiere at Wayne Theatre, you still have an opportunity to see it at Garst Museum. The movie is a featured part of the National Annie Oakley Center's Professional Room. Regular museum admission applies to viewing the movie and visiting the National Annie Oakley Center.