The Diverse Perspectives in Digital Media & Design: 2021 Speaker Series

Complex Narratives and Indigenous Solidarity  
Tracy Rector, filmmaker, Nia Tero
Raven Two Feathers, filmmaker
Jin Yoo-Kim, producer / impact producer
Friday, March 26, 2021, 4:00 PM, EST

Co-hosted by DMD department head, Heather Elliott-Famularo, and DMD student, Sydney Fournier

“The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.” - Audre Lorde 

Join three cutting-edge filmmakers and systems builders who are redefining narratives. Meet multicultural media-maker, Tracy Rector, as she shares time with longtime student and teacher, Raven Two Feathers, along with producer Jin Yoo-Kim as they explore themes of community-driven storytelling, complex identity narratives, mixed media making, and liberation based collaborations.  

Watch the Recording of the Event: 

About the Panelists:

Tracy Rector is a filmmaker, curator, community organizer, and programmer. Currently, she is serving as the Managing Director of Storytelling at Nia Tero, a non-profit committed to supporting Indigenous governance and guardianship. She has directed and produced over 400 shorts and other films and is in production on her sixth feature documentary Outta the Muck with support from ITVS. As an impact producer, Tracy served on the team for the Emmy Award winning feature documentary Dawnland, which premiered on Independent Lens’ 2018/19 season to 2.1 million viewers in its opening week. Her work has also been featured in National Geographic, imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian.

Tracy is the co-founder of Longhouse Media, which was a non-profit focused on galvanizing Indigenous and local communities through film production. From 2005 to 2021, they worked with over 50 tribal nations and helped train 3,000 young people. Tracy has received the National Association for Media Literacy Education Award, 2016 Stranger Genius Award, and the Horace Mann Award for her work in utilizing media for social justice. She is a Firelight Media Fellow, WGBH Producer Fellow, Sundance Institute Lab Fellow, and Tribeca All Access Grantee. Tracy’s first major museum installation opened in June 2018 at the Seattle Art Museum. Tracy serves as a Mize Foundation board member, senior programmer at the Seattle International Film Festival, and recently completed her second term as a Seattle Arts Commissioner. She is a mother of two young adults.

Raven Two Feathers (Cherokee, Seneca, Cayuga, Comanche) (he/they) is a Two Spirit, Emmy award-winning creator based in Seattle, WA. Originally from New Mexico, they spent their childhood moving and exploring Indigenous cultures across the continent and Pacific. They started making films in Hawaii after they enrolled in a film elective, putting them on the path they’d dreamed of since they were three. They made their first explicitly Indigenous film during Tracy Rector’s Superfly program. They returned to New Mexico to attend Santa Fe University of Art & Design, graduating magna cum laude with a BFA in Film Production. After graduation, their path led them to working on and creating more Indigenous art than ever and things began to feel right. They have been able to explore new mediums without the Western fear of imperfection hindering them. They recently released a comic-based zine, “Qualifications of Being,” about their journey of realizing they are trans and Two Spirit. The process is long and difficult but filled with the laughter, care, and openness they had dreamed of seeing as a child.  They continue to grow and explore their practice through the people they meet, and the stories that guide them.

JIN YOO-KIM is a Korean Bolivian American filmmaker currently producing MANZANAR, DIVERTED: WHEN WATER BECOMES DUST (dir. Ann Kaneko), a feature documentary exploring California water issues through the eyes of Native American, Japanese American WWII incarcerees, and environmentalists. She co-produced A WOMAN’S WORK: THE NFL’S CHEERLEADER PROBLEM (dir. Yu Gu, Tribeca ‘19, Hot Docs ‘19, Independent Lens), and K-TOWN ’92 (dir. Grace Lee, PBS World Channel). Jin served as the digital engagement impact producer for WAKING DREAM (dir. Theo Rigby, Indie Lens Storycast / PBS Digital Studios), and was the LA theatrical impact producer for BLOWIN’ UP (dir. Stephanie Wang Breal, Tribeca ‘18, Hot Docs ‘18, PBS POV & Amazon in Fall 2019). She most recently directed a 2 minute short as part of the A-Doc #AsianAmCovidStories called SPAMFIGHT! about an Asian American woman who cooks Spam during Shelter in Place despite her live-in vegetarian boyfriend’s disgust.  She is a 2020-2021 Sundance Creative Producers Fellow, a 2020 Film Independent X CNN Original Series Docuseries Intensive Fellow, a 2020 Film Independent Doc Lab fellow, and was a 2017 Firelight Media Impact Producing Fellow. She received her MFA in Film & TV Production from USC and a BA in Psychology and Cinema & Media Studies from Wellesley College.