Ben Kreimer speaks with filmmaker Jonathon Stanton. He is the producer, writer and directer of the new documentary, Games of the North: Playing for Survival. The film showcases traditional Indigenous sports of the Arctic from the perspective of the athletes themselves. The sports incorporate physical and mental skills necessary to survive in the extreme Arctic environment.
Ben Kreimer speaks with producer Ivy Vainio and director Nate Maydole about their work on the new Emmy-nominated American Indian health documentary Walking into the Unknown. The film follows a middle aged American Indian male as he undergoes a series of medical screenings to determine his risk for health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke that have a tendency to appear during midlife.
Valerie Red-Horse talks with Ben Kreimer about her many careers and most recent film production, Choctaw Code Talkers. Her film reveals the origins of how Choctaw Native American soldiers used their Native language to aid the Allied Forces in the transmission of secret, tactical messages during World War I. The Choctaw soldiers played a key role in helping the allies achieve victory.
Julianna Brannum is a veteran in the world of Native American documentary filmmaking. With two NAPT Producer Profile interviews already to her name, Brannum is back with her latest production, LaDonna Harris: Indian 101, a film exploring the life and achievements of one of Native America's most influential female activists.
Jenni Monet (Laguna Pueblo), discusses her latest in production film, Losing Ground (working title). Her film tells the story of 420 Inupiat Eskimos, living in the north Alaskan island village of Kivalina, as they struggle to save their community and way of life from being washed away by rising ocean levels and erosion.
Milt Lee (Cheyenne River Sioux), talks about his film Video Letters From Prison. In the film, Lee follows three young Lakota girls from the Pine Ridge Reservation as they establish communication with their incarcerated father.
Reporter Nancy Kelsey recently spoke with Tracy Rector, Executive Director and Co-founder of Longhouse Media, about her new documentary March Point. The two also discussed Tracy's work with Native youth and how she empowers them through media literacy and training. March Point will be airing on many public television stations November 18th at 10pm eastern. Here is the interview, from October 2008.
J. Carlos Peinado is a documentary filmmaker and the chair of New Media at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. His most recent documentary, Waterbuster, follows his path back to the Fort Berthold Reservation as he looks into the history of his family and his tribe including the flooding of over 150,000 acres of reservation land back in the 1950s by the Army Corps of Engineers. In this interview from August 2008, Ben Kreimer, NAPT Production Assistant, talks with Carlos about the journey that this film took him on as well as his teaching and other media projects.
John Gregg has worked at NAPT for over 12 years. He has been the AIROS Assistant Network Manager, project coordinator for the Native Radio Theater project and the host for Native Sounds Native Voices. Now as his wife takes a teaching position in South Dakota, he talks about his time at NAPT and his future plans as he heads north. Here is an interview from June 2008.
Producers Cristina Ibarra and John Valadez teamed up for seven years to explore a Texas public art project dedicated to a historical figure some call a hero and patriarch, and others call a destroyer of indigenous community in The Last Conquistador. Here is an interview with the two producers from June 2008.
As playwright Rhiana Yazzie, Navajo, commences on her newest work, The Really Real News from Native America, for the third season of Native Radio Theater with coproducer Clara NiiSka, Ojibwe, she pauses a moment to share her writing path and past done the Rhiana way. Here is the interview from June 2008.
As new permanent director of San Diego State University School of Theatre, Television and Film, Randy Reinholz, Choctaw, discusses the challenges of getting American Indians in the field. Here is the interview from April 2008.
American Indians are making their way through Hollywood but not only as actors and extras. James Lujan, Taos Pueblo, director of Intertribal Entertainment at the Southern California Indian Center in Los Angeles, is helping pave the way for Native directors and screenwriters to make a bigger impact and stakehold in the industry. While in California for a public media conference, we sat down with James to talk about their main project at InterTribal Entertainment, the Creative Spirit Script to Screen Short Film Competition. Here is the interview from February 2008.
Jim Fortier is a Metis producer, director, and director of photography for Bad Sugar, part of the upcoming Unnatural Causes series. He also directed the Emmy award winning documentary, Alcatraz is Not an Island.
AIROS listeners know him best for his work as host of the weekly radio show Voices from the Circle which he produces from WLUW in Chicago along with Barbara Jersey and Shadow the Radio Dog. Learn more about this Native producer including what he has cooking on TV, his views on media and culture as well as why he got into broadcasting in the first place.
Michelle Danforth is an Emmy nominated Oneida filmmaker living in Wisconsin. Michele is currently working as both an Independent Producer and a finance and marketing manager for a nonprofit organization. She talks about the reality of becoming and being an Independent Producer and the importance of sharing Native stories with others.
Listen to an interview with Gary Robinson, a Choctaw and Cherokee author and filmmaker, as he talks about his animated short A Native American Night Before Christmas as well as past and future projects, including a collaboration between himself and the late Phil Lucas on a book entitled From Warriors to Soldiers: The Untold Story of American Indians in the U.S Military.
Patricia Loew is an Ojibwe professor at the University of Wisconsin. She also spent 12 years as a coanchor for ABC in Madison. She recently produced the film Way of the Warrior for national broadcast on PBS.
Julianna Brannum is a very successful Comanche film-maker. She has been involved in numerous projects, including The Creek Runs Red and We Shall Remain. Both will air on PBS. We recently spoke with her about these two projects.
Dustinn Craig is a White Mountain Apache from Arizona. He got his start in film using a camcorder to record his friends skateboarding. His interest in film has led to numerous documentaries, including ones for national broadcast on PBS.