http://uanews.org/node/20196

UA-Led Workshop to Teach Filmmaking to American Indian Youth

The UA's Jack and Vivian Hanson Arizona Film Institute has partnered with
numerous entities to launch the Native Youth Filmmaking Workshop, which
will be held next month.

By University Communications
June 24, 2008

Tohono O’odham youth are going to be taught how films are produced and have
the chance to make their own as part of a new workshop a University of
Arizona institute is launching on the reservation.

The UA’s Jack and Vivian Hanson Arizona Film Institute is holding its
six-day Native Youth Filmmaking Workshop on the Tohono O’odham Nation next
month, teaching about 14 students between the ages of 14 and 19.

“One of the Hanson Film Institute’s focuses is on professional development
for students and emerging filmmakers,” said Vicky Westover, the institute’s
program director.

Westover, who developed the idea for the workshop, said the institute has a
special focus on American Indian and Hispanic films, noting that The Native
Eyes Film Showcase is one of its premiere events.

Each year the showcase features films by American Indian directors,
producers and writers and actors and those that discuss issues in the
American Indian community. The showcase began in 2005 and is a produced
through a collaboration with the Arizona State Museum, the National Museum
of the American Indian and the Smithsonian Institution.

The workshop, which is offered at no cost to the youth, is a natural
expansion of the showcase, Westover said.

She also said tribal members and leaders had been asking for such an
outreach program. Between July 7 and July 12, the students will receive
expert advice while learning about the work of indigenous filmmakers around
the world, media literacy and how to produce a film – writing, shooting and
editing – from experienced filmmakers from both coasts.

Students will be lent digital cameras and work with Final Cut software to
produce their own films individually and in group settings.

The institute recruited to lead teachers for the workshop – Nanobah Becker,
a member of the Navajo Nation who lives in Los Angeles, and Annabel Wong, a
Salt River Pima member who lives in New York.

Becker, who graduated with her master's degree in fine arts from Columbia
University, has shown her films at numerous festivals.

And Becker, who was raised in New Mexico, has taught film production for
American Indian high school students and she was chosen to participate in
the Native Forum Filmmaker's Workshop at Sundance Film Festival in 2005.

Tucson-born Wong, who was educated at New York's School of Visual Arts, has
participated in photo exhibitions across the nation and has also taught
video production to youth in various workshops with the American Indian
Film Institute's Tribal Touring Program.

A statement that Becker and Wong prepared noted that it is important to
equip American Indian youth with such skills because “in a society where
our Native culture is absent in mainstream media” the community must know
how to communicate its stories.

“Media making,” they added, “is not a privilege. It is a necessity.”

Marlon B. Evans and Jonathan Rios, who recently earned his communication
degree from the UA, will assist Becker and Wong during the workshop.

"Being successful and making millions does not interest me. My initial
intent as a professional is to express my emotional, spiritual and mental
realms as they pertain to my Native experiences via writing and
filmmaking," said Evans, who identifies as Tohono O’odham and Akimel
O’odham and is also a UA senior majoring in English.

Evans, who is also studying American Indian Studies and media arts, is
interested in writing screenplays, poetry and directing films related to
American Indian themes and wants to "teach, mentor and inspire O’odham
students in the disciplines of English and creative writing."

The UA’s Jack and Vivian Hanson Film Institute is working with the Tohono
O’odham Nation Cultural Center and Museum, the Tohono O’odham Community
College, the Tohono O’odham Community Action group, Baboquivari High School
and the Arizona State Museum to hold put on the workshop. Also, the UA
College of Public Health provided the digital cameras for the students to
use during the workshop.

“We always wanted an educational component, so we’ve had filmmakers talking
to students on and off campus," Westover said. “We always had the intention
that we would grow, and we finally decided to do it."