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Send a Voice
TYPE: Hybrid Short
GENRE: Documentary
STATUS: Pre-Production
LOGLINE
A young Lakota mother fights to do the best she can for her children in this poetic meditation on motherhood, trauma, and healing.
SYNOPSIS
Send a Voice is a lyrical documentary/fiction hybrid film about Kristina, a young Lakota mother navigating a hostile world. From the underbelly of Rapid City to the summit of Black Elk’s Peak, the project explores the possibility of seeing through the material world to the spiritual.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
Using a hybrid form of storytelling, our project, Send a Voice, is designed to forge equity and solidarity among our collaborators. We deconstruct, decolonize, and re-design the process of filmmaking to share storytelling authority with members of the community in which the stories take place. Against the backdrop of a place in which indigenous women and girls regularly go missing or are murdered, we work alongside Kristina to tell her story. We integrate documentary moments with collaboratively written semi-fictionalized scenes along with lyrical voiceover to elevate the quotidian rhythms of young motherhood. We build a sense of reverence for what is transcendent in the life of a young Lakota woman whose care for her children and her very survival are acts of resistance.
KEY CREW
Sunny Red Bear - Co-Director, Writer
Sunny Red Bear is a writer and Director of Racial Equity at NDN Collective. Sunny is Lakota and grew up on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. She has extensive experience in community organizing, campaign development, and healing and wellness advocacy. She has worked collectively with communities to create and reclaim space for our connection to Indigenous healing. Sunny is passionate about advancing equity within our community by developing and implementing initiatives that address incarceration and homelessness issues. She is committed to racial justice, equity, and healing on and with our land.
Aaron Kopp - Co-Director, Cinematographer, co-editor
Aaron Kopp is an award-winning filmmaker and national Emmy-nominated cinematographer who grew up in the Kingdom of Eswatini. Aaron shot and co-produced the Academy Award-winning documentary about acid attacks in Pakistan, Saving Face. He was also cinematographer for the Academy Award-nominated Sundance premiered film, The Hunting Ground, about sexual assault on college campuses. He has worked around the world on films for HBO, Netflix Originals, National Geographic, Discovery, UK Channel4, CBS, CNN, and PBS. Aaron was awarded grants from the MacArthur Foundation and the Doha Film Institute for his feature directorial debut, LIYANA. The film has won over 35 awards at international festivals including the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary at the LA Film Festival and the Knight Documentary Achievement Award, and it recently premiered on Sundance Now.
Amanda Kopp - Producer, co-editor
Amanda Kopp is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, and artist. She was producer and cinematographer for the short film, Likhaya, which won a Golden Palm, People’s Choice, and Best Documentary awards at international festivals. She also filmed for the Sundance premiered film, The Hunting Ground. Amanda’s photographic work has been published in the UK, US, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Pakistan, and Italy. For her feature directorial debut, LIYANA, she was awarded funding from Shine Global and Fork Films and was the recipient of the 2018 Emerging Female Filmmaker Award from the Oxford Film Festival. LIYANA is streaming on Sundance Now and its festival and award highlights include the Grand Prize Award at both the Heartland Film Festival and the New York International Children’s Film Festival. The film also screened at the BFI London Film Festival and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Yonas Seltene - Camera, Sound
Yonas Seltene is a cinematographer who grew up in Eritrea. Yonas is passionate about cinema’s power to change communities and cultures for the better. He received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Film, Theater, and Television from the University of Colorado. Yonas has worked on films that have aired on PBS, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic. He has filmed commercials for Adidas, Comcast, The North Face, TED Talks, Vice Media, Disney, ESPN, and many prominent non-profit organizations. Yonas is dedicated to telling artful, socially conscious stories and is working hard toward the goal of improving the filmmaking industry of his country of Eritrea.
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