The Native American Media Alliance has selected 7 fellows for their 3rd Annual Native American Unscripted Workshop, a program aiming to enhance the careers of Native American filmmakers, journalists, and artists in film and television. The 5-day program will bring the participants into contact with several networks, studios, and unscripted producers.
“We are excited to support a new cohort of unscripted indigenous filmmakers.” stated Ian Skorodin, the Director of Strategy for Native American Media Alliance. “Several fellows from past years have been able to develop, produce and distribute their unscripted projects to mainstream outlets.”
The 7 selected fellows are:
Michael R.L.Begay, is Navajo and Santo Domingo Pueblo from Chicago. Begay is a multidisciplinary artist and has received awards for his work in both the U.S. & Canada. He also works for The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Education & Cultural Affairs.
Rory Crittenden is a Cherokee screenwriter, director, and producer. He has won six Heartland Regional Emmys for his documentary work. He was a fellow for NAMA’s 5th Annual Native American Feature Film Writers Lab. His television pilot “Goingsnake” was a quarter-finalist in the 2022 Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest.
DezBaa’ is a SAG actor, television writer, and an indie film producer of the Diné Nation. She began her career in the New Mexico film industry as a background actor. She has been on Better Call Saul and finished her first season as a staff writer on AMC’s Dark Winds. She is also a faculty member at Northern New Mexico College where she teaches Indigenous Cinema.
Amanda Erickson is a Director/Executive Producer from the San Carlos Apache. Her first feature documentary, She Cried That Day, investigated the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives. She worked as a non-fiction TV producer for 15 years, working for the Travel Channel, National Geographic Wild, Investigation Discovery, and Curiosity Stream. She is a member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia, Array Crew and a Teaching Artist for newport FILM, and runs her own production company, Sees Clearly Productions.
Priscilla Naunġaġiaq Hensley is a filmmaker, writer and artist with family roots in Iñupiat and Settler heritage.She is senior in the Cinematic Arts & Technology program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, where she was awarded with a George R. R. Martin Literary Foundation scholarship for screenwriting. Her featured work includes the upcoming Navajo Police: Class 57 (HBO, Producer), WE UP: Indigenous Hip Hop of the Circumpolar North, and the recent article “Northern Beats, Righteous Rhymes” (Inuit Art Quarterly).
Brandi Morin is a Cree/Iroquois/French freelance journalist/producer/ documentary filmmaker from Alberta. She is a well-known journalist, with works in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Al Jazeera, National Geographic, The Guardian, BBC World, Rolling Stone Magazine, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, the CBC and more. She has won numerous awards for her journalism, including the Human Rights Reporting award from the Canadian Association of Journalists and an Edward R. Murrow with Al Jazeera English. Her debut memoir, Our Voice of Fire: A Memoir of a Warrior Rising, was published in 2022.
Amy Stretten is a member of the Chickahominy Tribe of Virginia and is an artist fellow at The Center for Cultural Power. She was featured in queer fashion book DapperQ Style:Ungendering Fashion, and has appeared on Reckon News, Fox Soul, CNN / HLN, ABC News, NYPost, United Nations TV, Snapchat News, Aboriginal People’s Television Network, HuffPost Live, TYT Network, and ABC / Univision’s Fusion.
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