CREATIVE TEAM

KATSITSIONNI FOX - DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY

Katsitsionni has been making films since 2003 in the Mohawk Territory of Akwesasne, where she resides. Her most recent film is “Ohero:kon - Under the Husk” a 26-min documentary following the journey of two Mohawk girls as they take part in their traditional passage rites to becoming Mohawk Women. Katsitsionni received the Jane Glassco Award for Emerging Filmmaker at the imagineNATIVE Film Festival in 2016 as well as the Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking Award at LA Skins Fest in 2016. This film received funding from Vision Maker Media and has been broadcast on many PBS stations in 2017. She is currently producing a short - doc series for REMATRIATION - a Native American women's online, multi-media magazine. It is focused on healing and empowerment of Native women through the sharing of their stories and successes.

KATJA ESSON - PRODUCER

Katja Esson is an Academy Award-nominated, Emmy award winning filmmaker based in Miami, known for her character-driven documentaries tackling race, class and gender. Her documentary short Ferry Tales garnered awards at international film festivals, was nominated for an Oscar and premiered on HBO in 2004. Hole in the Sky - the scars of 9/11 received the Gold Award at the World Media Festival. Skydancer was featured at the Margaret Mead Film Festival, received nominations for best film, director and cinematography at the Shanghai Film Festival and premiered on PBS in 2011. Poetry of Resilience was awarded Grand Jury Prices at numerous festivals, including a Cinema for Peace Award-nomination in 2012. Esson has a longstanding relationship with ARTE and recently created and directed two highly rated five-part documentary series: Backroads USA (2014) and American Rivers (2016), which aired on ARTE in 2017 and PBS in 2018. She is currently working on Razing Liberty Square, a feature documentary on climate gentrification in Miami. She received the Simons Public Humanities Fellowship at Kansas University and her films have screened at the Museum of Modern Art, American Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council of the Arts.

AMINA MEGALLI - EDITOR

Amina Megalli has over 20 years of experience in television and filmmaking. She recently completed editing a feature-length documentary with Mark Bozek called The Times of Bill Cunningham which was released theatrically on Feb. 14th 2020. She also worked on a feature-length documentary with Barbara Kopple about newly arrived refugees from Syria and Iraq to Toronto called New Homeland. It premiered at DOCNYC in 2019. She is currently editing a feature length documentary about the Levant and the Levantine identity called Wild is the Spring.

Prior to working on New Homeland she edited and co-wrote “Speak Your Truth,” a feature length documentary about women who tell their stories about being married and coming out later in life and changing their lives. She also worked on a National Geographic special Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS directed by Nick Quested and Sebastian Junger. The film won a duPont-Columbia University Award. She also worked on The Trials of Spring, created by Gini Reticker and Abigail Disney, produced by Beth Levison. The film world premiered at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival NY in June 2015.

Megalli edited a series or shorts for Human Rights Watch, including segments on sectarian tensions in Lebanon and the legal prosecution of Chadian dictator Hissen Habré. Additional credits include the 6-hour series Hopkins (ABC News), Houston Medical (ABC Network), World Birthday (The Learning Channel), Finance - Financially Fit (Yahoo!), and The Upbeat (Yahoo!). She speaks fluent English and Arabic and is proficient in French.

Marie-Cécile Dietlin - CINEMATOGRAPHER

Marie-Cécile Dietlin is a French filmmaker and visual artist currently living in Montreal. Her images have been broadcasted on CBC, APTN, Canal D, Canal Vie, TVA, VOX TV and film festivals (Festival du nouveau Cinéma, illuminate Film festival, ImagineNative Film festival, Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal). She has worked as a director and cinematographer on many projects related to native issues (APTN, CBC, Wapikoni). For four years she worked as a main Cinematographer on the TV program ‘Quand Passe La Cigogne’ broadcasted on ‘Canal Vie’. In 2012 and 2013 Marie worked on feature documentary films overseas, researching & shooting in Cuba, Africa and Spain for independent productions. In the last 2 years Marie has also been directing, filming and editing over 250 music videos. She has worked with emerging classical musicians around Montreal and across Canada for the ‘noncerto’ classical music channel. Marie is a versatile and trilingual filmmaker with a passion for story telling, and a strong interest in documentary filmmaking. She is passionate about social justice, the arts, the environment, and especially native and women’s issues. Her goal is to use the medium of film as a transformational tool for raising global human consciousness.

Marion Konwennénhon Delaronde - ANIMATOR

Marion Delaronde is Mohawk animator from the territory of Kahnawake. Marion received a Bachelor in Fine Arts with a Major in Film Animation from Concordia University. She is the Artistic Director at Kanien’kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkhwa Language and Cultural Center where she directs and produces “Tóta tánon Ohkwá:ri” a Mohawk puppet series for children. Her talents also include Scriptwriting, directing, working with translators, puppeteering, illustration, set design, production and animation. She directed and co-produced “Skátne Ronatehiaróntie” (“They Grow Together”) in 2012. This film was nominated for Best Animation at the American Indian Film Festival and was the winner of Best Animated Film at the Brantford Film Festival.

ALEX BOYA - ANIMATION STORYTELLING CONSULTANT

Alex Boya is Bulgarian-born, Montreal-based Alex Boya is an NFB director and writer, known for Turbine(2018), Focus (2014) and CBC Arts: Exhibitionists(2015). Alex Boya leanings toward animation developed while studying at Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, building on his lifelong enthusiasm for drawing.

Featuring

Louise Wahkehrakats:te Herne

Sally Roesch Wagner

and

G. Peter Jemison

Dr Lori Quigley

Chelsea Taiawentón:ti Sunday

Ionawiienhawi Sargent

Gloria Steinem

Jessica Bennett

Sabine Hoffman

Executive Producer for Vision Maker Media

Shirley K. Sneve

Editorial Consultants

Corina Sager

Consulting Producer

Tracy Rector

Associate Producer

Xochitl Rios

Cultural Consultant

Michael Galban

Additional Footage

Katsitsionni Fox

Victoria Catherine Chan

Audio Recording

Marie-Cecile Dietlin

Adam D Gold

Gaelle Komar

Kevin Lamoureux

Music Coordination and Composition

Robby Baier

Sound Design

Francis Gauthier

Illustrations

John Fadden

Graphic Design

Melanie Printup Hope

Historic Photos

New York State Archives

Library of Congress

Image courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc., Used By Permission

Post Production

Pillar2Post Digital Media

Music by:

“Katsitsionni’s Song”

Jennifer Kreisberg

“Bird Song”

Jennifer Kreisberg

Women’s Power Song

Written by: Bear Fox & Kaweienonni Peters

Ionawiienhawi Sargent

Iekhenistenha Ohontsia

Written by: Bear Fox

"Flute music"

Mignon Geli

Still Photography

Jessica Sargent

Tahila Corwin Mintz

Xochitl Rios

Katsitsionni Fox

Janet Flores

Special thanks to:

Haudenosaunee Women

Ohero:kon Akwatsíre

Seneca Art & Culture Center - Ganondagan

Matilda Joselyn Gage House

Seneca Nation of Indians

Onöhsagwë:de' Cultural Center

Syracuse University

The New House

Women’s Rights National Park

Kay & Val Olan