Where We're At Podcast – No. 8
James Fortier
Award-winning filmmaker James Fortier creates art that centers on the Native American experience. Accomplished at his craft, Fortier was the associate producer and writer for the 5 -Time Emmy Award winning "Waasa-inaabidaa: We Look In All Directions," a six-hour national PBS documentary series focusing on the history of the Ojibway people of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The series also received the Best Documentary Feature Award at the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco. Mr. Fortier also recently directed, co-wrote, and was the DP for the documentary "Alcatraz Is Not An Island," which received the Best Documentary Feature Award at the 1999 American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco, and was selected by the Sundance Film Festival in 2001. Born in Nipigon but raised in Chicago, Fortier maintains strong ties to his Métis and Ojibway relatives in Thunder Bay, and Nipigon, Ontario, and on the Pic River Ojibway First Nation Reserve. Visiting the UIUC campus in February 2007, Mr. Fortier screened excerpts from his documentaries on American Indian peoples. Current projects include collaboration on a short film with writer, UIUC professor, and member of the Choctaw Nation, LeAnne Howe. Fortier also recently began production of AIM: The American Indian Movement with Illinois filmmaker and UIUC faculty member Jay Rosenstein.
Credits
Editors
Sam Copeland and Laurel Cheng
Videography
Sam Copeland and Roshan Murthy
Project Manager
Laura Bandy
