APT Fall Marketplace
In Mid-November, VMM staff traveled to Southern California to attend PBS’s APT (American Public Television) Fall Marketplace to showcase early promotion of the new line-up of upcoming and available films, shorts, and series for PBS station programmers to consider. This convening is a great opportunity for VMM to meet and talk closely with many PBS stations and system distributors, brainstorming ideas, and creating partnerships to get more Native content to viewers and audiences nationwide. This year, in commemoration of VMM’s founding executive director, Frank Blythe, VMM gave away an honor blanket that represented Frank’s two tribes and his visionary leadership.
NCAI's annual convention
Vision Maker Media also attended NCAI’s Annual Convention (National Congress of the American Indian) hosted in New Orleans, Louisiana. Nearly 3,000 Native tribal leaders, council and community members, youth, and elders attended this year’s convention—one of the largest Native attendances in recent years. VMM attends to first-hand learn the critical issues Native communities face locally, regionally, and nationally. One of the most impressive sessions of presenters was around the topic of AI; it’s uses, abuses, dangers, risks, challenges, opportunities, and potential for Native country. The most interesting points were retaining Indigenous sovereignty regarding AI use within community and the limitation of AI’s use with Indigenous knowledge. Sovereignty, sovereignty, sovereignty was the main discussion point of every session and how to retain it against numerous new and continuing challenges, which made for a compelling and engaging conference this year.
