Category: Uncategorized

Shantal Begay is a graduate from New Mexico State University where she studied Animation & Visual Effects with a minor in Digital Film. She grew up on the outskirts of a tiny town on the Navajo Reservation before relocating for her education. As a Native American, she’d like to see more representation in her community,… Read more »

Nicole Emmons is a Citizen Potawatomi Nation filmmaker and mixed media/installation artist specializing in stop motion animation from Oklahoma City,Oklahoma. She received her MFA in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the Arts School of Film and Video as a Jacob K. Javits Fellow, and her Bachelors in Animation and Film from Columbia College… Read more »

Brian Vallie was born and raised on the Crow reservation in Montana. As a former state champion and record holder in track, Brian took his first flight off the Rez to compete for the division I powerhouse UNM Lobos, earning all conference honors immediately as a freshman. Brian currently lives in Los Angeles where he… Read more »

Tsanavi Spoonhunter (Director and Producer) is a descendant of the Northern Paiute Tribe, and citizen of the Northern Arapaho Tribe. Her ancestry and upbringing in Indian Country have strongly informed her storytelling and artistic vision. In 2020, Spoonhunter earned her master’s degree from the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley with… Read more »

Faith Phillips is a Cherokee novelist, publisher, and screenwriter living in the foothills of the Ozarks. She created the sub-genre known as Okie Noir. Her writing conveys a unique perspective on the lives of people existing in a land populated by migrants, exiles, outlaws, and survivors of attempted genocide. Phillips left active law practice and returned… Read more »

Haley Rains is an enrolled member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma. She was born and raised in Billings, Montana. She has worked as a professional photographer for over 14 years. She began her career as a concert photographer at the age of 15. Her portfolio includes bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Buckcherry,… Read more »

Brad Munoa is a writer, director, and producer for the Pechanga Creative Studios in Temecula, CA. He studied film production at the University of Southern California and graduated in 2005. Since then he has worked in many capacities creating content for the Pechanga Tribal Government and commercials for Pechanga Resort Casino. In 2017 Brad was… Read more »

Geoffrey Kie (he, him, his, they), is Big Corn Clan, and Little Turquoise Clan from the Pueblo of Laguna. Geoff has received his Bachelors of Science in Applied Indigenous Studies with a minor in Journalism from Northern Arizona University. He completed his Master’s with Distinction in Communication with an emphasis in Documentary Studies at NAU… Read more »

Born and raised in Oklahoma, Matt Kappele is a proud member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Matt’s love for film began at a young age when he would spend summers with his Choctaw grandmother, who introduced him to many of his favorite films, such as Godzilla, King Kong, and Jurassic Park, to name a… Read more »

From an early age, four or five, I was set on becoming a storyteller, a painter, an actress, a journalist, a writer, a reporter, anything I could do to help people to be informed and knowledgeable about underrepresented groups and issues. The problems associated with lack of awareness are all too familiar to me as… Read more »