Individual Artist Project Grant FY21

It's rare to find authentic films about Indigenous culture written and directed by Indigenous artists; a lot of our culture is written or directed by non Indigenous people and is considered to be ground breaking without actually crediting Indigenous people. Our values and teachings are often used to show our spiritualism is nothing more than magic tricks. Most of these works help further the negative stereotypes that have been cast upon our people which is then applauded by a large audience. I want to keep creating films that show other Indigenous artists, especially youth, that it is possible to have your work known and also shown by other artists while also keeping our values and teachings intact in a respectable way. In this way, I hope to inspire other Indigenous artists to start creating genuine art.I want to show that there are more genres and layers to Indigenous culture, our way of living, and how we make art than the usual stereotypes that are portrayed in main stream media. By using more than the superficial layers of what people are used to seeing from our culture by going more in depth from our teachings and using subtle nods to traditional origin stories, I hope to open the dialogue when it comes to Indigenous culture. The outcome that I am hoping to achieve is for more non Indigenous people to open their eyes to the fact that Ojibwe people are still here and are still passing down traditional stories and lessons from our ancestors, sparking an interest to learn more about Indigenous culture. I am dedicated when it comes to creating films and have made other short films to full completion that have been accepted into Indigenous film festivals. I have experience when it comes to pulling together a crew of actors and executing a film period where we achieve our goal using limited resources and time. I have several local musicians who are used to creating new music for my film projects and who are excited to keep working with me on new ideas. I plan to enter this film in film festivals and public screenings either via Zoom or in-person depending on health safety guidelines at time of completion. I plan to submit this short film to several other film festivals, other than the local film festivals around the Duluth area. I also plan to put it online so a larger audience can view it for a longer amount of time. If people start reaching out with questions about the meaning of the video or leaving the film festival with a longing to know more about the Indigenous culture, then I know that my goal to have people know that we still exist will be achieved.