NDIGI-GENIUS

WEB SERIES | NEW MEXICO PBS

“Indigi-Genius” is a web series celebrating the innovative and creative spirit of Indigenous cultures worldwide. Each episode tells a unique story highlighting the clever strategies and practices Indigenous communities have used and mastered for centuries. It could be farming techniques, bead making, pottery, seed saving, creation stories, or even technology (past and present). For example, do you know why a horno oven bakes bread, steams corn, and cooks meat so well? Because of the unique shape, the materials the horno is made out of, and the technique used to trap heat inside the oven. What about the 3 sisters: corn, beans, and squash? The 3 sisters have a legend behind them that they were a gift from the gods always to be grown together, eaten together, and celebrated together. As it turns out, though, they also have benefits for each other from a farming and nutritional standpoint.

Release: January 25, 2022
Distributor: New Mexico PBS

Kevin McDonald

Executive Producer

KEVIN MCDONALD has 25 years of experience in broadcast news, both in front and behind the camera. He is the Executive Producer at New Mexico PBS, but has also served as Production Manager and Public Affairs Producer for the station. Before that he worked as an Executive Producer and Producer for ABC, CBS and NBC Affiliates in Missouri and Oklahoma. He began his career as an Anchor/reporter/videographer and editor at the NBC affiliate in Farmington, New Mexico covering the vast Four Corners region of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona.

Anthony Rodriguez

Producer/Director/Editor

ANTHONY RODRIGUEZ attended UNM and graduated in 2017 with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration concentrating in Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media. He also completed a minor in Arts Management. These combinations lead him to become technically skilled in filmmaking while also learning the role of business in making the arts successful. From 2016-2019 Rodriguez worked at NMPBS as a TV Production Tech. He is now the Senior Video Production Specialist for Media Resources in the Cultural Services Department of the City of Albuquerque and has worked on several pieces like Creative Bravos (Director of Photography) and runs the YouTube channel for One Albuquerque Media.

Lee Francis IV (Pueblo of Laguna)

Host/Writer

DR. LEE FRANCIS IV (Pueblo of Laguna) is the CEO and Founder of Native Realities LLC, an Indigenous Imagination Company. The company has published the largest assortment of Indigenous-centric comic books in the world. Dr. Francis also founded the Indigenous Comic Con in 2016 and opened Red Planet Books and Comics, the only Native comic shop in the world, in 2017. In 2014, he received his Ph.D. in Education from Texas State University with a focus on Indigenous education systems and Indigenous leadership. He also serves as the National Director of Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers, a 25-year old organization dedicated to promoting the work and words of Native and Indigenous people throughout the world. There are numerous more accolades, but all of these are the reason why Dr. Lee Francis is the lead writer and host of “Indigi-Genius.”