Vision Maker Media (Firm)

When you hear the phrase "Native American music" you may not think of tubas, trumpets, and Sousa marches. Yet, this rich musical tradition has long been a part of Native American culture...Experience the Native American music scene like never before and get an inside look at contemporary Indian life in this unexpected and engaging half-hour documentary, Sousa on the Rez: Marching to the Beat of a Different Drum.

Facing scorching temperatures, 19-year-old Andy Payne, a small-town Cherokee boy, takes home the gold after winning a grueling 3,422-mile foot race designed to bring attention to the newly constructed Route 66 Highway. The race recounted in this Emmy-nominated film became one of the wildest promotion schemes in history, allowing Andy to win enough money to marry his girl and keep the family farm.

This documentary explores the mythic and historic roots of contemporary gambling in the Northwest Native Society through a look at the traditional hand game (also called "stick game" or "bone game"). Travelling from reservation to reservation meeting engaging and colorful players, the filmmakers show how traditional ways of thinking are alive today in Indian country. An inside view of an ancient form of gambling that combines strategy, wit and skill....

URBAN REZ explores the controversial legacy and modern-day repercussions of the Urban Relocation Program (1952-1973), the greatest voluntary upheaval of Native Americans during the 20th century. During the documentary, dozens of American Indians representing tribal groups from across the West recall their first-hand experiences with relocation, including the early hardships, struggles with isolation and racism. Interviewees also speak about the challenges...

In 1918, not yet citizens of the United States, Choctaw members of the American Expeditionary Forces were asked by the government to use their Native language as a powerful tool against the German Forces in World War I, setting a precedent for code talking as an effective military weapon and establishing them as America's Original Code Talkers.

In 1877, the Ponca people were exiled from their Nebraska homeland to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. To honor his dying son's last wish to be buried in his homeland, Chief Standing Bear set off on a grueling, six-hundred-mile journey home. Captured en-route, Standing Bear sued a famous U.S. army general for his freedom--choosing to fight injustice not with weapons, but with words. The Chief stood before the court to prove that an Indian...

Legendary as one of America's greatest horse tribes, the 21st century Nez Perce decided to bring horses back to their land and lives with the unlikely help of a charismatic Navajo horseman, Rudy Shebala. His mentorship guides at-risk teenagers toward the strong medicine of horses, and his equine skills bring historic Nez Perce horse culture to modern renown.  But his personal demons imperil both accomplishments.  HORSE TRIBE is an epic story about...

YELLOW FEVER follows Tina Garnanez, a Navajo veteran returning from duty with the U.S. Army who realizes that her home on the Navajo Reservation has become a battleground in a protracted war over nuclear proliferation. As she seeks to learn about her own family history and its relationship to the uranium mines, we witness her evolution from curious family member to environmental justice activist.

Two brothers from the Onondaga Nation pursue their dreams of playing lacrosse for national powerhouse Syracuse University. The obstacles in their way are frequent and daunting, but their love for the game, each other, and their family's unyielding determination, propels these youth towards their dream. Official Selection at the **Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival**.

CHASING VOICES tells the extraordinary life story of controversial ethnographer John Peabody Harrington. Beginning in 1907, Harrington crisscrossed the United States frantically searching and documenting dying Native American languages. For the next 50 years, this became his obsession. Harrington amassed over a million pages of notes on over 150 different tribal languages. Some of these languages were considered dead until his notes were discovered....