The Diverse Perspectives in Digital Media & Design: 2021 Speaker Series
Complex Narratives and Indigenous Solidarity
Tracy Rector, filmmaker/community organizer
Raven Two Feathers, filmmaker
Jin Yoo-Kim, filmmaker
Friday, March 26, 2021, 4:00 PM, EST
“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.
LEARN MORE AND REGISTER: https://dmd.uconn.edu/experience/diverse-perspectives/tracy-rector/
About the Panelists
Tracy Rector (Choctaw/Seminole) is a mixed-race filmmaker, curator, community organizer, and programmer. Currently, she is serving as 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 including the award-winning Teachings of the Tree People, March Point, Maiden of Deception Pass, and Ch'aak' S'aagi. She 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 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, a non-profit focused on galvanizing Indigenous and local communities through film production. Since 2005, she has 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 is in her second term as a Seattle Arts Commissioner. She is a mother of two young men.
Raven Two Feathers (Cherokee / Seneca / Cayuga / Comanche) is a Two Spirit, Emmy award-winning filmmaker. Being intertribal only encourages their exploration of local indigenous roots, wherever they go. They recently graduated magna cum laude from Santa Fe University of Art & Design with a BFA in Film Production. They produce and direct film and other media projects, working with a naturally diverse cast and crew along the way. They create various forms of content, flowing between fiction and non-fiction, most recently through the lens of virtual reality. Currently, they are in development for a queer Indigenous documentary series.
Jin Yoo-Kim is a documentary producer, frequent film director, rare Korean Bolivian American, never-ending mother, and eternal foodie always seeking the best food a city has to offer. Jin directed a short film called The Raw Truth, about raw vegans in Los Angeles (The Documentary Channel, Parallel Lines, SHORTS HD TV, Gaiam TV). She also directed a narrative short about two foodies falling in love in Los Angeles called Bacon Wrapped Date. 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. Jin is currently producing Manzanar, Diverted (dir. Ann Kaneko), a feature documentary exploring California water issues through the eyes of Native American, Japanese American WWI incarcerees, and environmentalist experiences. She is a 2020-21 Sundance Creative Producers Fellow, a 2020 Film Independent Doc Lab fellow, and was a 2017 Firelight Media Impact Producing Fellow. She received her MFA in Film from USC and a BA in Psychology and Cinema & Media Studies from Wellesley College.
This event is brought to you by UConn’s Department of Digital Media & Design in partnership with:
UConn’s Native American Cultural Programs, Human Rights Institute, and Dodd Impact.
About the Diverse Perspectives in Digital Media & Design: 2021 Speaker Series:
To paraphrase James Baldwin, nothing can be changed until it is faced. This is certainly true of the inequities that have historically shaped digital media content, fields, and careers. Join UConn’s Digital Media & Design department in welcoming industry professionals, artists, and media scholars from film, game, design, cultural and other sectors to discuss how issues of equity manifest in their work, creative processes, and professions, allowing us to reflect on how our own practice can support greater equity, diversity, and inclusion.
For more information, contact: Stacy Webb at stacy.webb@uconn.edu