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Native Lens teaches digital filmmaking and media
skills to indigenous youth as a form of self-expression, cultural preservation,
and social change. We believe in Native youth telling their own stories
about life, culture, and community, and understand the power of this process
to change peoples’ lives. Native Lens is engaged in strong partnerships
with multiple tribes and Native organizations/schools to offer on-going
workshops to Native youth both on and off reservations. In addition we
offer consultations and workshops for teachers, schools, and organizations
interested in utilizing digital storytelling and youth media in their
community.

Native Lens’ inception was sparked due to the absence
of present-day indigenous experiences and perspectives in the media. For
far too long Native Americans have been given no choice in the media except
to repeatedly enact stereotyped roles, or to remain silent and unseen
altogether. We believe this perpetuates violence, hopelessness, and low
self-esteem among Native youth, in addition to misperceptions and racism
among non-Native people. By teaching digital filmmaking and media literacy
to Native young people we are encouraging them to reclaim their own images,
and tell stories that only they can tell.

“The world needs to
see us in the way we see ourselves, our youth are the future. Finally
we are taking control of our voice and the images of who we are as Native
people by teaching them the skills to create our own media. Longhouse
Media and Native Lens are important for this reason.”
--Adam Beach (Smoke Signals, Wind Talkers, Flags of our Fathers)

Native Lens is partnering with Helping Hands from
the Puyallup Tribe’s Kwawachee Health Center to offer a series of on-going
workshops in digital filmmaking for tribal youth. Participants are learning
everything from camera technique to sound, editing, directing, and scriptwriting.
Pieces currently in production include: “Paddling to the Future,” a youth
documentary on the 2008 canoe journey from Puyallup to Cowichan, “My World,”
a powerful short that explores the dangers of drug abuse among young people
and the importance of leading by example, “Rumors,” a public service announcement
that addresses the negative affects of spreading rumors, “The Cooking
Show: Healthy Eating,” a short piece where youth filmmakers show how to
make a fruit salad and demonstrate the connection between eating healthy
and living healthy, and “Creative Native,” a video that shows how young
people at Puyallup are mixing passion with tradition in the form of hip
hop, as a way of staying clean and sober and making healthy choices. Once
complete, Native Lens youth produced films will screen on an on-going
basis in the Puyallup Kwawachee Health clinic–one of the largest indigenous
health clinics in existence. Finished films will also screen for the local
community and be submitted to film festivals. To find out more contact:
as_nativelens@mac.com

Native Lens, in partnership with the Swinomish
tribe, has led on-going workshops for youth in digital filmmaking since
2003. Through the years youth participants have created over 20 short
films that have screened on television and in national and international
film festivals, and worked on the feature length award winning documentary,
“March Point.” These productions have led to many travel opportunities,
with youth participants attending and showcasing their work at festivals
in San Francisco, Denver, New York, Santa Fe, and Washington DC. The Swinomish
community’s dedication and support of Native Lens has been essential in
our growth and development. Well known Native Lens films produced by Swinomish
youth include, “Rez Life,” “Storyteller,” “Fifteen,” “Native Pride,” “Time
Machine,” “Reflection,” “Cultural Ways,” and “Searching.” These films
have been used for educational purposes in tribal communities, schools,
health and environmental seminars, and community organizations.

One of our biggest successes is measured in the ability of the youth we
engage to bring back to their community what they have learned. Youth
that started as participants of Native Lens five years ago are now young
adults and have started working with Native Lens to teach the next generation
and assist in Longhouse Media productions. Currently Swinomish Native
Lens participants are working on producing their first 30-minute television
show, for our recently launched production--Native Lens TV. Native Lens
TV will air on the Swinomish tribe’s cable TV station, Swin 96, and Seattle’s
Community Media station, SCAN TV, broadcasting through Seattle and King
Country, and streaming on-line at www.scantv.org.

Native Lens has partnered with the Muckleshoot
Tribe since 2006 to offer digital arts and filmmaking workshops to youth
during the school year and summer break. Youth work with teaching artists
twice a week with additional weekend workshops to develop, shoot and edit
films based on personal life experience, culture and community. Youth
have produced everything from a humorous Halloween horror flick to a powerful
investigation of domestic violence titled “Love and Violence.” In “Between
Two Rivers,” participants worked with professional visiting artists to
create a four-minute visual story about the Muckleshoot tribe, its spirit
and culture. Muckleshoot youth have traveled to Denver to show their films
at the International Indigenous Film Festival, and represented their work
to Mayor Greg Nickles when Native Lens was given the Mayor’s Arts Award
in 2007. Currently a Native Lens video produced by Muckleshoot youth is
screening in.

Longhouse
Media’s Native Lens teamed up with the Seattle Art Museum to offer
“Where I’m From,” a series of youth media workshops that focus on Coast
Salish concepts of home and place, and cross cultural understanding.
Films produced in these workshops will premiere at SAM’s ARTattack:
Teen Night Out. This series of workshops accompanies the major exhibit
S’abadeb–The Gifts: Pacific Coast Salish Art and Artists. S’abadeb,
which explores the unique artistry and culture of Salish First People
in Washington State and British Columbia. Several videos from Native
youth working with Longhouse Media/Native Lens are included in the
exhibit, sharing personal stories about their tribe, culture and
community. S’abadeb, the Lushootseed word for “gifts,” invokes the
reciprocity that is at the heart of Salish culture. Native Lens films
included in S’abadeb will tour with the exhibit internationally.

In 2007 Longhouse Media partnered with the Lummi
Tribe to offer a series of Native Lens workshops for youth. Participants
produced two short videos reflecting on issues of culture and community
that are important to them. “Canoe Pulling: A Lummi Way of Life” explores
the tradition of canoe pulling through interviews with various members
of the community who are active participants in this tradition. The video
was inspired by members of the filmmaking team who are themselves canoe
pullers. The second video weaves together images from a youth's perspective
of life on the rez. One of the youth filmmakers even wrote and performed
a soundtrack to accompany these poignant images! For most of these youth,
the Native Lens program was their first exposure to hands-on filmmaking.
Their final videos are a vivid reflection of how hard they worked and
how much they learned.