Shot on super 8mm film stock, this is the traditional Haudenosaunee wedding of my brother in 1998, the union of Snipe and Turtle clans. The film's structure is loosely based on our creation story, beginning in the Sky World, then descending to the Water World upon the Turtle's back (very loosely based). Shot on the Onondaga Nation, 1998.

This short video is a mathematical dissection exposing one of American Cinema's "directorial masters", D.W. Griffith as nothing more than a man absent virtue, imagination, or courage. A juxtaposed ten-second increment descends second-by-second down to a final one-second image from The Battle of Elderbush Gulch inter-cut with the ascension of a one-second image culminating into a final full ten-seconds of Powwow dancers. Contrary to Popular Belief addresses cinema's long history of racism towards, misrepresentations and inaccurate depictions of Native Americans, something D.W. Griffith perpetuated throughout his life, although not solely encompassing Native Americans.

In a similar fashion to filmmaker Martin Arnold and his sub-textual deconstructions of films, I appropriate Dances With Wolves to deconstruct Kevin Costner's solo reenactment/interpretation of Native dance. Through a frame-by-frame approach in various parts of this scene, I reconstruct Costner's ridiculous desire to become Native by repeating certain movements, calling attention to the absurdity of his actions as a filmmaker following the audacity and arrogance of many non-Native people's desire to co-opt another culture. The co-optation of another culture is, in this instance particularly, for the sole benefit of profit and not accurate portrayals of Native culture. This film also explores the popular theory that engages white people's desire to become that which they've destroyed and which they feel nostalgia for. The title of the film comes from two Jim Jarmusch films, Dead Man and Ghost Dog, which are lines delivered by Native actor Gary Farmer's character, Nobody. I utilize Modest Mouse's, Cowboy Dan as a contemporary song befitting this commentary.

"Good Riddance Chief Illiniwek" is a satirical look at one of America’s historically institutionalized derogatory portrayals of the White man’s Indian upon notification of this iniquitous depiction’s retirement. The combined use of historical imagery with contemporary imagery and the utilization of the infamous “Ten Little Indians” song provide the backdrop for this satire from one Native American’s perspective.

Festivals: Video Now! 2007, Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse, NY); 2007 Tulalip Film Festival (Tulalip, WA).

Reservation(s) is a self-reflexive video that examines my educational career and my disaffection with it one and a half years into the MFA Film program at Syracuse University, it is also a play on the word reservation, which came to me while I was driving (fumingly angry over certain instances at SU) to Onondaga to visit my family. American culture clashes with Native American cultural views in the academic arena, especially when professors do not possess any comprehension of Native American culture or further continue to entertain the ignorance they don't even realize they're entertaining. I experienced underhanded comments that were intended to be praise within my own department as well as continued ignorance or stereotyped instances in my program (this may have been another attempt at humor by the department). So, Reservation(s) is my ode to my educational experience specifically directed toward my own department. Although I still hold a great deal of respect for my professor's knowledge and talent, I don't believe they provided an environment conducive to appropriate academic learning.