March 2005
 James
Fortier (Métis/Ojibwe) explored recent Native
American history in his film Alcatraz Is Not an Island.
It screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001, received a
Best Director Award at the 2003 Northern California Emmy Awards
and the Best Documentary Feature Award at the 1999 American Indian
Film Festival. The year before the film came out, Fortier organized
a 30th anniversary celebration of the American Indian occupation of Alcatraz with noted speakers and performers. He has worked
on a many other Native film productions, including, as director
of photography, Today
Is a Good Day: Remembering Chief Dan George, and as associate
producer and writer for Lorraine Norrgard's series on the Ojibwe
people, Waasa-Inaabidaa: We Look in All Directions, which
won Best Documentary Feature and the Producers Award for Best
Series at the 2002 American Indian Film Festival. Fortier also
produced a companion website for the series: www.ojibwe.org.
Fortier's company, Turtle Island Productions, recently completed
Pulling Together, a feature-length documentary about the
Muckleshoot Tribe's participation in the Pacific Northwest's annual
Tribal Canoe Journey in 2003. Fortier graduated from San Francisco
State University. He was born in Nipigon, Ontario, and grew up
outside Chicago.
"Most people know very little about the realities of the
contemporary Native American world. Stereotypes dominate America's
misunderstanding of Native American cultures and history, and
what it means to be "Indian" in contemporary society.
I want my films to bring the non-Native viewer into the little-known
and often misunderstood Native American world in a way that is
sensitive to Native cultures, but also in a way that is illuminating,
entertaining, and thought provoking. "
Screened by NMAI
Image credit:
James Fortier - courtesy of the filmmaker
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