Samara Lopez-Jones (she/her) is Choctaw from the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and grew up in the Bay Area. She moved to Los Angeles in 2021 where she received her Bachelor’s in Film, TV, & Media Studies at Cal State LA. Samara has directed films that highlight her interests in serving Indigenous communities, assessing community needs, and building community. Some of her work has premiered at Cal State LA’s Golden Eagle Film Festival and 2023 LA Skins Fest. Her role as a filmmaker, Samara’s mission is to push the boundaries and create a platform for Indigenous and underserved communities to be represented with accuracy and authenticity. As a person of a mixed ethnicities, (Choctaw, Black, Chicana) Samara acknowledges that her ancestor’s language, teachings, land, and even citizenship had been stripped away through colonization as an act of symbolic annihilation. As a result, she has dedicated much of her time to decolonizing and indigenizing health, wellness, education, media and arts. Today, Samara continues to focus on storytelling and addressing community needs. This commitment shines through in her position as the Multimedia Communications Assistant at United American Indian Involvement (UAII). Collaborating closely with UAII’s leadership, personnel, community stakeholders, and clientele, she endeavors to articulate UAII’s heritage and influence spanning five decades.