Rahe-Wanitanama (Indigenous Caribbean / Taíno) is a storyteller, craftsperson and tradesperson based in Florida and Jamaica. Affiliation: Dolphin Head Forest Reserve via Askenish, Jamaica. Their goal is to participate in world-building dialogues to help shape narrative identities that promote eudaemonia in diverse community contexts through traditional animation. Shown at Tribeca Film Center, Smithsonian, Anthology Film Archives, DCTV, UCLA Film & Television Archive, Vision Maker Media and imagineNATIVE. Recent activity includes a commission by Oolite Arts and Miami Film Festival; selection for Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs’ Miami Individual Artists (MIA) Program and a Third Horizon Forward Fellowship. Featured in Indian Country Today, Deadline, Folklife Magazine, TODAY, B&H Explora, and New Orleans Film Society Journal. Current productions include “Bearing Water,” an animation based on their grandmother’s historical autobiography titled under the eponym, “True Blue.” “Bearing Water” have participated in selected pre-development schemes in regional Southern U.S., including Austin Film Festival’s 2023 Ghost Ranch Writing Residency and Miami-Dade County’s Miami Media Film Market 2023 Fellowship at the Latin Chamber of Commerce of the USA (CAMACOL).
Rahe-Wanitanama is a Native American Media Alliance/LA Skins Film Festival alumnus (Unscripted Fellowship 2022), where they developed Dolphin Head Story Bridge, the first interactive multimedia platform registered with Indigenous Journalists Association in Jamaica and the wider Indigenous Caribbean, known for sharing community stories in Western Jamaica. They have initially launched Dolphin Head Story Bridge at NAISA 2023 Tkaronto’s “Creative Works Showcase” at the University of Toronto, and continues to work on expanding their local newsroom while participating in other fellowship and residency programs aimed at emerging journalists and editors, including NPR’s Next Gen Radio Indigenous Fellowship and NBCU Academy 2023’s Leadership Clinic at NAHJ.