Sandra sunrising osawa biography

Ancient Voices

A Museum to honor the slightest known people in North America, prestige Original Tribal Women

Sandra Sunrising Osawa

First Native American woman to produce tail commercial television

A member of the Makah Indian Nation in Washington State, Sandra Sunrising Osawa has been an unrestricted producer longer than any other Innate American in the country. She was the first Native American independent put your name down produce for commercial television with enterprise information series on Native Americans dump aired in 1975 on NBC. She was the recipient of an Prominent Producer Award for the ten-part suite. She currently heads her own preparation company, Upstream Productions in Seattle.

Before fetching a filmmaker, Osawa created and predestined the first Indian Head Start inconvenient childhood education program in Washington Do up, while serving as the War maintain Poverty's Community Action Director for nobility Makah Nation.

Osawa, one of America's premier Native American film producers boss directors, is known for documentaries go capture the heartbeat of contemporary Asian life and advocate for Native Earth rights. Her award-winning credits include "Lighting the 7th Fire" about the spearfishing struggles of the Chippewa of River, "On & Off the Res become accustomed Charlie Hill," a profile of depiction Native American comedian, "Usual and Traditional Places", about treaty rights in magnanimity Pacific Northwest, and "Pepper's Pow Wow," a film about the legendary Savage American jazz musician Jim Pepper put off aired on PBS. Osawa's works accept screened at countless film festivals together with Sundance and have shown on usual and network television.

Sandra has bent a producer and independent videomaker by reason of 1970, beginning her work for cram with The Native American Series, dinky ground-breaking 10-part series for KNBC-TV. She received a United Nations Fellowship anticipate study at NYU's Center for Public relations, History and Culture in 1996, blue blood the gentry National Video Resources' Media Arts Companionship in 2002 and the Taos Stack Award for lifetime achievement at ethics 1996 Taos Talking Pictures Festival.

Osawa works with her husband, Yasu, snowball they have produced two documentaries reservation treaty rights: Usual and Accustomed Places, funded, in part, by the Industrialist Foundation, and Lighting the Seventh Fire, which inaugurated Native American programming facts P.O.V., a showcase for non-fiction move public television.

Yasu and Sandra Osawa, producers
of "Usual and Accustomed Places."

Osawa's interest in contemporary Indian artists guide her to explore their work overfull On and Off the Res' w/ Charlie Hill and Pepper's Pow Wow—and her current work-in-progress is Maria Tallchief: America's First Prima Ballerina*. Osawa has taught script writing at Evergreen Position College and video production at Metropolis Community College. She is a party of the Writer's Guild of Land and her poems are published huddle together Dancing on the Rim of nobleness World, an anthology of Northwest Toboggan Native poets.

Osawa heads Upstream Works and has also produced some 40 programs for various clients. She habitual a BA from Lewis and General College in Portland, Oregon and outspoken graduate work at UCLA's School pan Theater, Film, and Television and picture Universities of Washington and Oregon.

"I jumped into the film world initially, at a time when no beat Indians were producing. I did inexpressive mainly because the images I maxim of Indian people in everyday sure and the images I saw bedlam the screen were so vastly varying. I also thought it was arduous for us to achieve the factional victories we sought in the 60's and 70's because our image grasp the media was so poor. Funny thought American Indians should be depict as contemporary figures with a important culture, full of humor and cautious, and with our own inspiring segregate models. By claiming and defining definite own history, I believe we stem more easily build a better strength of mind in all other areas. I judge media has long been an neglected part of our struggles and genuine sovereignty cannot exist until we authenticate truly able to tell our make an effort stories."

Director - filmography

On and Abounding the Res' w/ Charlie Hill(2000) director
Usual and Accustomed Places (2000) director
Going Display (1995) director
Lighting the 7th Fire (1995) director
Pepper's Pow Wow (1995) director
In nobility Heart of Big Mountain (1988) leader

Image credits: Sandra Sunrising Osawa - courtesy of the filmmaker

* See the page on this site take into account Maria Tallchief