Telling True Stories in a Good Way

As an Indigenous documentary filmmaker, what does it mean to tell true stories in a good, ethical way? How do we protect and respect our communities while sharing our stories with broader audiences? How do our teachings inform our storytelling? 

On our newest episode we talk with Cherokee Nation filmmaker Brit Hensel  about her work as a visual storyteller and her responsibilities to community. As part of our third episode in our series of live recordings from Santa Monica College, we had the chance to take a deep dive with her on her film created in collaboration with artist Cherokee artist Keli Gonzales, ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught), which explores expressions of reciprocity in the Cherokee world, brought to life through a story told by an elder and first language speaker. Her work challenges all of us to think about what we owe to one another. 

Brit’s film can be viewed (for free!) as part of season 1 of the reciprocity project along with six other short films from Indigenous communities throughout the world at https://www.reciprocity.org/films

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Special thanks to  Santa Monica College and everyone there who made this possible, thank you to the AMR team: Jonathan Stein, Max Levin, Teo Shantz, Lindsey Hightower,  and Charlie Stavish. Major shout out to KP of Blackbelt Eaglescout for being our live music for the event and to Ciara Sana for the episode artwork.

#AMRPodcast #AllMyRelations #AllMyRelationsPodcast #storytelling #Cherokee 

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Follow us on Instagram @amrpodcast, or support our work on Patreon.  Show notes are published on our website, Allmyrelationspodcast.com. Matika's book Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America is available now!  T'igwicid and Hyshqe for being on this journey with us.