Native Americans in Media -Discussion (ZOOM) with Bird Runningwater, Director, Indigenous Program and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, at Sundance Institute

Please join us for a ZOOM discussion about Native Americans in film with Bird Runningwater, Director, Indigenous Program and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Sundance Institute. Mr. Runningwater will discuss Native American participation and creation of narratives in film. Registration is required.

Bird Runningwater belongs to the Cheyenne and Mescalero Apache Tribal Nations, and grew up on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico. Based in Los Angeles, California, Runningwater serves as the Director of Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program, where under his tenure 140 different Indigenous filmmakers have been mentored and supported through Labs, Grants and Fellowships. Artists he supported to get their work made and seen include Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Muskogee Creek Nations), Taika Waititi (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui), Shaandiin Tome (Diné) and Elle Maija TailFeathers (Blackfoot/Sami).

In Time Magazine’s 2019 Optimist Issue, Runningwater was listed among “12 Leaders Who Are Shaping the Next Generation of Artists”. Most recently he was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the Oscars.

A recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation’s National Fellowship in Public Policy and International Affairs, Runningwater is also an alumnus of Americans for Indian Opportunity’s Ambassadors Program and the Kellogg Fellows Program. He is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with degrees in Journalism and Native American Studies, and he received his Master of Public Affairs degree from the University of Texas at Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.

ONCE REGISTERED, you will receive a ZOOM invitation prior to the event.