Native American Film Series: Reservation Redemption (Read More)
Screening and Q&A with Directors Brenda Fisher and Blake Pickens, moderated by Georgiana Lee. at Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center This documentary follows Colville Tribe Chief’ Marchand Rice's nearly 40-year path toward redemption while examining the disproportionate incarceration of Native Americans and a justice system that often punishes trauma without addressing its roots. Featuring intimate interviews with tribal leaders, attorneys, and those impacted by Chief’s mentorship, the film is both a critique of the American justice system and a celebration of Indigenous traditions of healing, accountability, and restoration. Sponsored by Vision Maker Media Details: https://theross.org/film/nafs-reservation-redemption/ Brenda Fisher is a Los Angeles-based director, executive producer, talent manager, and social justice advocate. As a Yakama Descendant growing up on the reservation has instilled in Brenda a deep appreciation for diversity, making her a staunch advocate for ensuring a varied client base. Her commitment to inclusivity and understanding of different cultural perspectives enriches her approach to talent management, fostering environments where everyone can thrive. Brenda also prides herself on the relationships she builds with her clients as she truly cares about their success. She produces the “Reservation Redemption” YouTube Channel which supports the documentary. Brenda executive produced Native American lore horror-thriller The Windigo, currently streaming on Prime, VUDU, and Apple TV. Blake Pickens is an Emmy Award winning Chickasaw comedian and filmmaker. Blake began his career writing satire for The National Lampoon, where he published numerous featured articles. He is a part of A Tribe Called Sketch, the first all Native American sketch show on a US Second City Stage. He can be seen performing standup all over LA. Blake was selected for the Time Warner Sundance Native Producing Lab and Fellowship and the Sundance Producing Fellowship for his film The Land. The film premiered in 2016 at the Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically by IFC Films. Blake has produced content with a focus on diversity and inclusion, ranging from feature films to commercials and music videos. He has produced commercials that won a Grand Prix at Cannes Lions two years in a row (2017, 2018) and won a 2018 Emmy for his P&G commercial The Talk. He also won an MTV VMA for his work on John Legend’s music video Surefire. His second feature film as a producer, Wild Indian, with Michael Greyeyes and Jesse Eisenberg premiered at Sundance 2021. Blake was also selected for the inaugural 2020 Sundance Indigenous Intensive for his comedy pilot, The Wildest West, which was also selected for the Black List’s Indigenous List. Georgiana Lee, a proud member of the Diné (Navajo) tribe, holds a Bachelor’s in Journalism and Theater from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Her career in non-profit and public media has largely focused on helping Indigenous filmmakers navigate the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) to achieve national broadcast. In 2006, she received the University of Nebraska—Omaha’s Woman of Color Youth Leadership Award for her collaborative media projects that brought positive messaging to Omaha’s communities of color. Her experience also includes organizing successful get-out-the-vote efforts on the Fort…
Contact Information
Title:
Website: City:
Native American Film Series: Without Arrows (Read More)
Every second Monday evening of each month, Vision Maker Media and The Ross Media Arts Center present free in-person public screenings that feature Native American films by and about Native Americans and Alaska Natives. The Native American Film Series showcases stories about cultural heritage, art, history, music, civic leadership, youth, and more. Q&A sessions enhance each screening. Please check The Ross website to confirm screening time. Without Arrows is a longitudinal portrait of a Lakota family living on a reservation in South Dakota, that unfolds over the course of 12 years. Delwin Fiddler Jr. is a champion grass dancer who grew up on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation in South Dakota, but left as a young man to escape a trauma that splintered his family and built a new life in Philadelphia. Thirteen years later, Delwin returns home to attempt to heal the past. Followed by a Q&A with directors Elizabeth Day and Jonathan Olshfeski, and the film's subject Delwin Fiddler Jr, moderated by Joe Rousseau.
Contact Information
Title:
Website: City:
Native American Film Series: Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] (Read More)
Every second Monday evening of each month, Vision Maker Media and The Ross Media Arts Center present free in-person public screenings that feature Native American films by and about Native Americans and Alaska Natives. The Native American Film Series showcases stories about cultural heritage, art, history, music, civic leadership, youth, and more. Q&A sessions enhance each screening. Please check The Ross website to confirm screening time. Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] In the sterile archives of museums our ancestor’s remains struggle to find their way home. The film follows the eleven indigenous repatriation specialists that make up MACPRA (Michigan Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation & Repatriation Alliance). Through an essayistic approach the film takes a critical look at the reasoning that justified unearthing and collecting them in the first place, and presents vérité portraits of the courageous individuals doing the hard and emotionally draining work of fighting for their return. The June 8 screening will be followed by a discussion with Zack Khalil (Director/Producer/Cinematographer), Jacque Clark (Producer/Additional Cinematographer/Sound Recordist), and Samuli Haavisto (Cinematographer). Moderated by Shirley Sneve (ICT Newscast Senior Producer). Shirley Sneve is the senior producer for the ICT Newscast, a program of IndiJ Public Media. The weekly half-hour magazine show airs on 80 percent of PBS stations, Australia, Canada and several on-line streaming platforms, including Free Speech TV. A member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, Sneve is also affiliated with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. She directed Vision Maker Media from 2004-2019, which is the largest US funder of Indigenous documentary film projects for public broadcasting. She lives in Lincoln, Nebraska and serves on the boards of the Near South Neighborhood Association, The Circle (Minneapolis, MN) The Center for Rural Strategies (Whitesburg, KY) and Arts Extension Institute (Amherst, MA). Zack Khalil, a member of the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a filmmaker and artist whose work centers Indigenous narratives in the present—and looks towards the future—through the use of innovative nonfiction forms. Khalil is a core contributor to New Red Order, a public-secret society which calls attraction toward indigeneity into question, yet promotes this desire, and enjoins potential non-Indigenous accomplices to participate in the co-examination and expansion of Indigenous agency. Khalil is the co-director and co-editor of the feature documentary INAATE/SE/it shines a certain way. to a certain place/ it flies/falls/ which premiered as the closing night film of the Museum of Modern Art’s Doc Fortnight Film Festival, and the experimental documentary short The Violence of a Civilization without Secrets (2017) which premiered at Sundance. Khalil also works professionally as a video editor, most recently co-editing Alison O’Daniels feature film The Tuba Thieves (2023), which premiered at Sundance. Khalil’s own work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, Sundance Film Festival, New York Film Festival, CPH: DOX, HKW, Walker Arts Center, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Creative Time, Toronto Biennial 2019, Whitney Biennial 2019, 59th Venice Biennale, Sharjah Biennial 15, Counterpublic Triennial 2023, among other institutions. Khalil is the recipient of various fellowships and grants, including a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, Sundance Art…
Contact Information
Title:
Website: City:
Native American Film Series: In the Wake of Justice Delayed (Read More)
Every second Monday evening of each month, Vision Maker Media and The Ross Media Arts Center present free in-person public screenings that feature Native American films by and about Native Americans and Alaska Natives. The Native American Film Series showcases stories about cultural heritage, art, history, music, civic leadership, youth, and more. Q&A sessions enhance each screening. In the Wake of Justice Delayed The American justice system promises a timely resolution for crimes but is failing our Alaska Native families who wait years, and even decades for resolution within our system. Consequently, this leads to general distrust, lower reporting and higher recidivism by perpetrators who are unpunished or rehabilitated and left to run free in the communities where their crimes were committed. This film looks deep within families fighting for justice after a loved one is murdered, with particular attention to systemic historical roots and perpetuation of generational trauma as context and basis for understanding the current epidemic of violence. The film will be followed by a Q&A with Katrina Jagodinsky and Nicole Stoops, moderated by Indian Center, Inc., Executive Director Wathina Porter. Katrina Jagodinsky is the Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor of History at UNL. She is a legal historian examining marginalized peoples’ engagement with nineteenth-century legal regimes and competing jurisdictions throughout the North American West. Jagodinsky holds a Ph.D. in History (2011) and M.A. in American Indian Studies (2004) from the University of Arizona, and she earned her B.A. (2002) from Lawrence University. She spent a postdoctoral year at Southern Methodist University’s Clements Center for Southwest Studies before joining the department and was the inaugural Jack & Nancy Farley Distinguished Visiting Scholar in History at Simon Fraser University in 2019. Nicole “Nikki” Stoops is the Vice President of Engagement at the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN), a role she has held since July 2022, where she leads efforts to strengthen stakeholder and membership involvement, guide communications and branding strategies, and build broad support for AFN’s mission while shaping how the organization is perceived and understood. She was honored in 2019 with both the Top 40 Under 40 Award from the Alaska Chamber of Commerce and the Native American 40 Under 40 Award from the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. Prior to joining AFN, Nikki served as Executive Director for the Native Village of Kotzebue and later relocated to Anchorage with her family to become Senior Director of Corporate Communications at NANA Regional Corporation. She is a shareholder of NANA Regional Corporation and Kikiktagruk Inupiat Corporation, as well as an enrolled tribal member of the Native Village of Kotzebue. Nikki earned her Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Mass Communication from Northeastern University in Boston and now lives in Anchorage with her husband, Jake, and their two sons, Casey and Cale, and enjoys cheering them on at their baseball games.
Contact Information
Title:
Website: City:
Native American Film Series: Scha’nexw Elhtal’nexw Salmon People: Preserving a Way of Life (Read More)
Every second Monday evening of each month, Vision Maker Media and The Ross Media Arts Center present free in-person public screenings that feature Native American films by and about Native Americans and Alaska Natives. The Native American Film Series showcases stories about cultural heritage, art, history, music, civic leadership, youth, and more. Please verify screening time with the theater. Scha’nexw Elhtal’nexw Salmon People: Preserving a Way of Life is an hour-long documentary inspired by the late Chexanexwh Larry Kinley, a Lummi fisherman and tribal leader who embodied a belief in tribal sovereignty. The film follows two Lummi families fishing for sockeye. As they come to grips with a depleting fishery, Larry asks: “Who Are We Without Salmon?” Celebrating the resilience and adaptive natures of salmon and the people, the film is a reflection on a spiritual life way centered on respect and gratitude for salmon. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Tah-Mahs Ellie Kinley moderated by Patrick O’Meara. Tah-Mahs Ellie Kinley is a commercial fisher who comes from a family where every single generation since time immemorial has harvested the Salish Sea. Additionally, she is President of the Sacred Lands Conservancy, a Native-led non-profit committed to the protection of the Salish Sea; an elected member of Lummi Nations Fisheries and Natural Resource Commission; a former contractor for Lummi Nation’s Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office; a founding board member of SeaFeast; and a member of the Working Waterfront Coalition. She is an Executive Producer on the feature documentary Resident Orca, the story of the captive orca Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut (Tokitae/Lolita), and is co-author of the bilingual Xwlemi Chosen (Lummi language) / English children’s book Sa’Le Q’ewet Netse’lh / Our Hearts Beat as One. Patrick O’Meara joined Vision Maker Media in 2024 as Cultural Education Director. Prior to Vision Maker Media, Pat served seven years as the Social Studies Teacher Leader for Lincoln Public Schools (NE), directing curriculum and assessment for nearly 200 K-12 social studies teachers and co-teaching the first-year tenure course for new social studies educators. Before his district office role, Pat served twenty-six years as a classroom teacher. Pat holds a bachelor’s degree in history and English and a master’s degree in Historical Studies. At Vision Maker Media, Pat curates’ Indian education programs for VMM’s iNative Shorts for Kids YouTube channel and PBS Learning Media, supporting VMM’s standing as the premier national media source for and about Native Americans. Pat also develops and presents educational sessions at national conferences such as National Indian Education Association, National Educational Television Association, National Council on Social Studies, and research on a new Native media project about Indigenous science.
Contact Information
Title:
Website: City:
Native American Film Series: Coming Round (Read More)
Every second Monday evening of each month, Vision Maker Media and The Ross Media Arts Center present free in-person public screenings that feature Native American films by and about Native Americans and Alaska Natives. The Native American Film Series showcases stories about cultural heritage, art, history, music, civic leadership, youth, and more. Coming Round The spectacular Sonoma pacific coast and the mighty redwood forests are iconic elements of California’s and American identity. And forever intertwined with these inspiring landscapes is the cultural richness of the Native American tribes that have lived for thousands of years along the coastal bluffs and forested waterways. In December 2016, 700 acres of land was returned to the Kashia Pomo Indians from which they had been separated nearly 200 years before. (1 hour, 30 minutes) The film will be followed by a pre-recorded Q&A with J. Mitchell Johnson moderated by Georgiana Lee. J. MITCHELL JOHNSON, Coming Home Co-producer/Director/Writer/Camera Operator/Editor, worked for four-time documentary Academy Award winner Charles Guggenheim after finishing the cinema graduate program at USC. GEORGIANA LEE, a proud member of the Diné (Navajo) tribe, holds a Bachelor’s in Journalism and Theater from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.
Contact Information
Title:
Website: City:
Native American Film Series: Oyate Woyaka (Read More)
Every second Monday evening of each month, Vision Maker Media and The Ross Media Arts Center present free in-person public screenings that feature Native American films by and about Native Americans and Alaska Natives. The Native American Film Series showcases stories about cultural heritage, art, history, music, civic leadership, youth, and more. Oyate Woyaka tells the story of the Lakota language history, loss and revitalization. The film touches on the deep history and spirituality of the language, the shocking history that caused Lakota to be on the verge of extinction and the modern efforts being made to bring language back to life and the immense challenges this effort faces.
Contact Information
Title:
Website: City:
Native American Film Series: FIRELIGHTERS: FIRE IS MEDICINE with Elizabeth Azzuz (Read More)
Every second Monday evening of each month, Vision Maker Media and The Ross Media Arts Center present free in-person public screenings that feature Native American films by and about Native Americans and Alaska Natives. The Native American Film Series showcases stories about cultural heritage, art, history, music, civic leadership, youth, and more. FIRELIGHTERS: FIRE IS MEDICINE (2024) will be followed by a conversation with Elizabeth Azzuz, who is the board secretary of the Cultural Fire Management Council For centuries, most landscapes in North America were shaped by fire between lightning strikes and Indigenous burns. Indigenous people had deep knowledge of the art of using fire, and still do today. FIRELIGHTERS follows the work of women leaders from the Yurok and Karuk Tribes who are building resources to share indigenous practices and create policies to take back indigenous burning rights. (57 minutes) ELIZABETH AZZUZ (Yurok/Karuk) grew up and lives in the traditional Yurok village of Weitchpec. She is a cultural practitioner, gathering and propagating traditional food and medicine plants. She is the board secretary of the Cultural Fire Management Council, responsible for logistics and permitting. She is an active community member.
“My Omaha” will screen at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center from December 12-20. (A special screening on Dec. 21 includes a post-screening Q&A with filmmaker Nick Beaulieu and community activist Leo Louis II.) Set against the backdrop of Omaha’s deep divides and burgeoning racial justice movement, My Omaha tells the story of filmmaker Nick Beaulieu’s personal journey to document the activism of his hometown and reconcile with his terminally ill father Randy, a staunch pro-Trump supporter. Guided by the wisdom of community activist Leo Louis II, Nick navigates the complexities of family conflict, political and racial discord, and the difficult search for common ground. DEC 12 | FRI 5:00 p.m. DEC 13 | SAT 3:00, 7:00 p.m. DEC 14 | SUN 5:30 p.m. DEC 15 | MON 5:00 p.m. DEC 16 | TUE 7:00 p.m. DEC 17 | WED 5:00 p.m. DEC 18 | THU 7:00 p.m. DEC 19 | FRI 5:00, 7:00 p.m. DEC 20 | SAT 1:00, 5:00 p.m. DEC 21 | SUN 1:30 p.m. (with MOVIE TALK) Tickets are $10 (discounts available for seniors, military, students, Ross members and children) and may be purchased at the theater or in advance on The Ross website: https://theross.org/events/my-omaha/. For more information about the film, visit: https://www.myomahafilm.com/
Contact Information
Title:
Website: City:
“My Omaha” film and discussion – The Ross (Read More)
"My Omaha" will screen at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center from December 12-21, with the 1:30 pm screening on Dec. 21 including a post-screening Q&A with filmmaker Nick Beaulieu and community activist Leo Louis II. Set against the backdrop of Omaha’s deep divides and burgeoning racial justice movement, My Omaha tells the story of filmmaker Nick Beaulieu’s personal journey to document the activism of his hometown and reconcile with his terminally ill father Randy, a staunch pro-Trump supporter. Guided by the wisdom of community activist Leo Louis II, Nick navigates the complexities of family conflict, political and racial discord, and the difficult search for common ground. Tickets for the Q&A screening are $10 (discounts available for seniors, military, students, Ross members and children) and may be purchased in advance on The Ross website: https://theross.org/events/my-omaha-qa/. For more information about the film, visit: https://www.myomahafilm.com/ NICK BEAULIEU is a documentary film director and producer based in New York City. His feature debut MY OMAHA premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in 2025. Previously, he was a contributing writer on “The Last Tear” and produced short films for the PBS series “American Portrait.” He served a four-year term on the board of directors with Movement in Omaha for Racial Equity. He has received grants for his work from Humanities Nebraska, the Kindle Project, the Union for Contemporary Art and the Andy Warhol Foundation. In 2024, he was awarded the Interchange Grant by Mid-America Arts Alliance with support from the Mellon Foundation. He’s the founder of “Documentary Omaha”, a community organization advancing the art and education of documentary filmmaking in Omaha, his hometown. LEO LOUIS II, human, and community organizer is the board president of the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation. Louis brings a thoughtful perspective that resonates with the common experience of ALL “Americans.” Louis is an Omaha native who has experience in various disciplines, including gang intervention, urban farming, entrepreneurship, public speaking, fatherhood and more.
Contact Information
Title:
Website: City:
Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte documentary film (Read More)
A special FREE SCREENING of the documentary DR. SUSAN LA FLESCHE PICOTTE followed by a Q&A, presented by the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs and co-sponsored by the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center. The first Native American to become a physician, Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte, fought hard for the health, wellness, and spiritual and cultural lives of her Omaha people. She was a doctor, healer, teacher, and so much more. Over 100 years after her death, her legacy still continues as many Indigenous women look to her for inspiration and follow in her footsteps. On Indigenous People’s Day in 2021, a statue of her likeness was erected on Centennial Mall in Lincoln, Nebraska. Next to her sculpture reads her words, “I shall always fight good and hard, even if I have to fight alone.” The Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte documentary was made in partnership with The Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs and also partially funded by Humanities Nebraska and special donors Jane L. Johnson and Joan Desens. Following the 30-minute screening, there will be a Q&A with panelists Ingrid Holmquist, Susan Picotte, Larry Small, and Judi gaiashkibos. Free and open to the public. Assisted listening devices available.
