Native Youth Media Project
Vision Maker Media Native Youth Media Project empowers Native Youth to uplift the voices of their communities through the art of filmmaking and storytelling. Rooted in a generational prophecy, VMM envisions Indigenous knowledge and our Indigenous way of life as guiding light for a humanity movement this world so desperately needs. Through the Native Youth Media Project, young Indigenous voices are nurtured and celebrated, fostering a rich tapestry of narratives that contribute to the cultural mosaic of humanity.
The Native Youth Media Project partners with Native youth programs, working with youth ages 13-21 years, in Native organizations and communities. The partnership is collaborative where the partner has sovereignty over the progress of the project, while Vision Maker Media contributes resources for media production and community engagement.
The partnership between Vision Maker Media and Native organizations and communities work together to strengthen Native youth’s story development for short-format media. Youth produce short-format videos around such topics as science, health & wellness, climate & environment, education, art, culture, history, language, and empowerment. Finished videos are expected to be shared in a community engagement activity that is determined by the partner organization.
Together, We Are Vision Makers!
PROGRAM GOALS ARE TO HELP NATIVE YOUTH:
-Develop a creative outlet that can set ideas for a career and/or educational path in media
-Work with experienced Native American public media makers as mentors
-Conduct community engagement that empowers self-worth and nurtures artistic talent
For more information or questions, contact info@visionmakermedia.org or 402-472-3522.
In grateful appreciation, the Native Youth Media Project is supported by The Cotyledon Fund, The Kresge Foundation, and The NoVo Foundation.
Creative Shorts Fellowship
Vision Maker Media is unleashing the harness and barriers of Native storytelling through the Vision Maker Media Creative Shorts Fellowship. We want to nurture and encourage new and creative, innovative storytelling and have emerging Native filmmakers tell film stories in a uniquely imaginative, inventive, and artistically experimental way.
We are seeking to support emerging Native filmmakers to produce new stories that deconstruct barriers of perceptions and misperceptions, facts and myths, ideologies and truths, push the limits of art and technology, while also supporting a mentorship with a career professional film producer or director.
Through the Creative Shorts Fellowship, VMM pays an honorarium directly to film professionals, Native or non-Native, to mentor an emerging Native filmmaker. Emerging Native filmmakers find their own mentor for their project. Film professionals, Native or non-Native, may also submit a proposal — following criteria and eligibility — to mentor an emerging Native filmmaker in the production of that emerging filmmaker’s short film. Emerging Native filmmakers must choose their mentor prior to applying and film professionals must choose their mentee prior to applying.
Requests for funding in the Creative Shorts Fellowship should be a proposal to film, record, and produce short films to completion, and include a named film professional mentor.
For more information or questions, contact info@visionmakermedia.org or 402-472-3522.
In grateful appreciation, the Creative Shorts Fellowship is supported by The Reva & David Logan Foundation and The Claire M. Hubbard Foundation.
