BROOKE PEPION SWANEY (Blackfeet/Salish) was selected to participate as a NATIVe Fellow at the 2019 European Film Market/Berlinale. She is also a 2014 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellow and a 2013 Time Warner Fellow through the Sundance Institute. OK BREATHE AURALEE, her NYU graduate thesis film, screened at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and has TV distribution with FNX (First Nations Experience, a PBS affiliate). Brooke’s experience also includes producing BELLA VISTA (Rotterdam 2014), Vision Maker Media funded short film and new media project SIXTY FOUR FLOOD (PBS & PBS digital), and the first season of the podcast ALL MY RELATIONS (Matika Wilbur & Dr. Adrienne Keene). She also worked with Revolution Messaging on the Bernie Sanders 2016 United States Presidential campaign on their digital media team, producing, directing and editing; her Native Outreach ad I AM HUMAN received over 3 million hits on Facebook. Brooke is also a screenwriting faculty mentor at the Institute of American Indian Arts in their Creative Writing MFA program.

KENDRA MYLNECHUK POTTER (Lummi). Kendra is an actor whose performances can be see in CHRISTMAS UNDER WRAPS (Hallmark), 2 DAYS IN NEW YORK, NATIVES (SXSW 2013), and OK BREATHE AURALEE (Sundance, 2012, Best Actor NBC/Universal Short Cuts), THE BLACKLIST (NBC), WINTER IN THE BLOOD, WE BURN LIKE THIS, and COPPER CITY. In addition to her work on film, Kendra is a theatre artist, writer, and educator. She is co-founder of MT+NYC Collaborative, a cross country theatre company based in Missoula, MT. The Buffalo Play, which she co-wrote with Ciara Griffin, premiered at The Tank in NYC in 2019. She supports people’s search for identity and storytelling in workshops, retreats, and classes through both the MT+NYC Collaborative and her business Sistermoon Wellness, where she works as a birth doula and yoga instructor. This is her first time stepping behind the camera.

GITA SAEDI KIELY spent 10 years with Kartemquin Films, where she was series producer and story editor for the acclaimed series The New Americans, a three-part, seven-hour series following five immigrant families' journey to and first years in the U.S. She has served on producing teams for Channel 4 in the UK, CBS and PBS in the U.S. and RTE in Ireland. Aside from production, Gita was Executive Director of the Big Sky Film Institute and the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, and adjunct lecturer at the University of Montana. She currently serves on the board of ITVS.

JERI RAFTER is a Montana based producer dedicated to telling stories about the people and place she calls home. She most recently produced CREATURES a period piece film told entirely in the Blackfoot and Shoshone languages. She has also produced the critically-acclaimed MICKEY AND THE BEAR (Annabelle Attanasio, SXSW 2019 & L’ACID CANNES). Her other production credits include TED K (Tony Stone), THE BALLAD OF LEFTY BROWN (Jared Moshe). Her first feature length film project, BELLA VISTA (Vera Brunner-Sung), premiered at the International Rotterdam Film Festival in January 2014. In 2015 she was invited to be part of the Sundance Producers Lab and participated in the Sundance + Women in Film Female Filmmakers Initiative. Jeri is a fifth generation Montanan and has a MFA in Media Arts from the University of Montana.

ZELMIRA GAINZA most recently shot LUXOR (Sundance 2020) and EGG featuring Christina Hendricks (Tribeca 2018). She also produced and filmed the documentary HAVANA MOTOR CLUB (Tribeca 2015, Samuel Goldwyn). Amongst several shorts, documentaries, music videos and art installations, two short films Zelmira shot screened at Sundance: OK BREATHE AURALEE (2012) and SO GOOD TO SEE YOU (2016 Short Film Grand Jury Prize Nominee). Her film, THE POOL received the 2010 National Board of Review Student Award. She is currently based in New York.

KRISTEN SWANBECK edited ICE CREAM, which premiered at the 2018 Telluride Film Festival, in addition to the feature film JOY DE V. which premiered at Slamdance Film Festival in 2013 and won the Golden Bear. She also most recently edited BILL W., a documentary about the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, which aired on PBS in 2016. She received her MFA from NYU and lives in LA.

SKY HOPINKA (Ho-Chunk/Pechanga) received his MFA in the Film, Video, Animation, and New Genres program at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. A filmmaker in his own right, his work has played at the Whitney Biennial and various festivals including ImagineNATIVE Media + Arts Festival, Images Festival, Courtisane Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and the Ann Arbor Film Festival where he was awarded the Tom Berman Award for Most Promising Filmmaker. He is a founding member of the filmmaker collective COUSINS.

SUSAN HARNESS (Salish) is an American Indian transracial adoptee. Her master’s research in cultural anthropology at Colorado State University examined issues and outcomes of American Indian transracial adoption, and resulted in the book Mixing Cultural Identities Through Transracial Adoption, and is published by Edwin Mellen Press. Ms. Harness consults nationally and internationally about the unique issues that arise in this type of child placement, as well as American Indian assimilation policies and programs, which adoption is a part.

LAURA ORTMAN (White Mountain Apache) is an artist. She works out of her New York apartment affectionately named the Dust Dive. WIRE magazine recently reviewed her field recordings during the pandemic. She has performed at the 2019 Whitney Biennial, the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA P.S. 1, and the Centre Pompidou, amongst others . Her awards are numerous including: 2020 JEROME@CAMARGO RESIDENCY, 2017-18 JEROME FOUNDATION FELLOWSHIP, 2016 ART MATTERS GRANT AWARDEE, 2016 NATIVE ARTS AND CULTURE FOUNDATION FELLOWSHIP, 2014 RAUSCHENBERG RESIDENCY, 2015 Social Engagement Residency at IAIA’s Museum of Contemporary Native Arts S​anta Fe, Artist­-in­Residence, Issue Project Room NYC, 2008 First Nations Composers Initiative COMMON GROUND Grant.