4th World Media Lab

May 11 - 21, 2023

The 4th World Media Lab is a year-long traveling fellowship for emerging and mid-career Indigenous filmmakers, providing opportunities to develop filmmaking skills and networks through festival participation, hands-on training, master classes, workshopping projects in development, pitch activities, and meetings with funders and other industry decision-makers. Cohort 8 fellowship activities take place February 2023 through October 2023 at three film festivals: Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) and Camden International Film Festival. The Seattle experience, in partnership with Nia Tero, offers industry master classes, hands-on training, and global networking in the SIFF urban festival atmosphere.

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Adreanna Rodriguez

Standing Rock Sioux | California | Website

Adreanna is a Lakota/Chicana artist based in Oakland, CA. As a storyteller, her research, writing, and filmmaking revolve around issues of social/climate justice for Indigenous communities, as well as femme stories. She has directed and produced her first short documentary film about female pastoralists from the Maasai tribe who document the impact of climate change through the use of participatory photography. She holds a M.A. in Visual Anthropology from San Francisco State University and a Graduate Certificate in Documentary Studies from the Maine College of Art. She is currently working as an audio producer for VICE Media.

Fritz Bitsoie

Diné/Navajo | California | Website

Fritz Bitsoie is an award-winning Diné/Navajo filmmaker based out of Oakland, Ca. His recent film, The Trails Before Us, was featured at numerous film festivals across the nation. Including SXSW, SFFilm, Seattle International, Mountain Film, AIFF, and Big Sky Doc Film Festival where it took home the award for, Best Artistic Vision. It was also an official selection for the Native Film Showcase for the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian. Self-described as a VHS action-film geek at heart, Fritz is an alumnus of the University of New Mexico that grew up on sci-fi/horror and martial-arts VHS films. He loves to incorporate elements from genre films to focus on stories that explore themes of cultural significance within the experience of the modern Native American.

Jonathan Luna

Tama Descent / Mestizo | Florida / Colombia | Instagram

Jonathan Luna is a land defender and community organizer based in La Jagua, Huila, Colombia. Over the last sixteen years they have held many roles, including as a cultural worker, educator, researcher, farmer, and interpreter/translator. They have been a member of the arts activist group the Beehive Design Collective since 2002, and a co-founder of the Polinizaciones process since 2008. Within La Jagua, Luna is co-founder and member of the community association “Jaguos por el Territorio,” focused on the intersection of environmental justice and art. Since 2007, they have accompanied, co-created, coordinated, and implemented different processes of wildlife monitoring, ecological restoration, popular education, audio visual creation, permaculture, performance art skills building & non-violent direct actions with rural communities impacted by resource extraction projects—mostly Indigenous communities throughout Colombia and in Zulia, Venezuela. As of late 2019, Luna has been coordinating the development and production of the macro project for traditional Wayuu tattoo revitalization: taking form through the documentary feature, a series of gatherings, multimedia production, and a regional impact tour.

Loren Waters

Cherokee Nation / Kiowa Tribe | Oklahoma | Website

Award-winning filmmaker Loren Waters is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and the Kiowa Tribe. Loren’s work aims to center environmental knowledge and culture revitalization through storytelling. She is a recipient of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation LIFT Award and a former fellow of the 2021 Warner Media Bootcamp and the Intercultural Leadership Institute Year 4. Loren worked on projects Seasons 1 and 2 of Reservation Dogs, Fancy Dance (2023), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). Currently, she is in production with a short film titled, ᏗᏂᏠᎯ ᎤᏪᏯ (Meet Me at the Creek). Her first short documentary, Restoring Néške'emāne (2021), screened at Hawaii International Film Festival, deadCenter Film Festival, and Cucalorus. The film won Best Short Documentary at North Dakota Environmental Rights Film Festival and Honorable Mention at Tallgrass Film Festival.

Paige Bethmann

Haudenosaunee (Mohawk / Oneida) | Nevada | Website

Paige Bethmann is a Haudenosaunee director and producer based in Reno, Nevada. Over the last 10 years, Paige has worked in non-fiction television for various digital and broadcast networks such as ESPN, PBS, Vox Media, Youtube Originals, USA and NBC. As a filmmaker, Paige has been supported by the Logan Non-Fiction Fellowship Program and 2022 PGA Create fellowship. Her debut feature film, ‘Remaining Native,’ has also been supported by the IDA Logan Elevate Grant, Tracksmith, the Points North + CNN Films American Stories fellowship program, Perspective Fund, and Running Strong for American Indian Youth. A graduate of Ithaca College, Paige has a bachelor’s degree in Film, Television, and Radio from the Park School of Communications. Remaining Native will be her directorial debut.

Ritchie Hemphill

Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw | British Columbia | Instagram

Ritchie Hemphill grew up on Tsulquate reserve and was raised by his community, the Gwa’sala-’Nakwaxda’xw people. He is currently living on Coast Salish territory on Vancouver Island, Canada. Ritchie is both a filmmaker and a recording musician, working to create art that is healing for himself and for his people. Ritchie co-founded the award-winning stop motion animation film studio Bronfree Films with his film partner Ryan Haché in 2015, and have since produced a number of short films that include Indigenous legends, language revitalization and Elder storytelling. Ritchie has an integral role in producing, directing, designing, composing for and marketing films with Bronfree Films. The studio’s short film “Məca,” recently won the Indigenous Language Production Award from imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival (2022), and was nominated for Best Animated Short at the American Indian Film Festival (2022). Ritchie’s goal is to render his people’s traditional stories in a beautiful light through his films.

Past Indigenous Filmmaker Fellows:

2021–22: AJUAWAK KAPASHESIT (White Earth Ojibwe descendant Waskaganish Cree Enrolled member) | BRIT HENSEL (Cherokee Nation) | ERIN LAU (Native Hawaiian) | JARED LANK (Mi’kmaq Acadia First Nation) | LUCÍA ORTEGA TOLEDO (Zapotec [from Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico]) | MORNINGSTAR ANGELINE (Navajo, Chippewa Cree, Blackfeet, Shoshone, Latinx) | THEOLA ROSS (Cree Treaty 5, Pimicikamak Cree Nation-Cross Lake)