Resume

Turtle Island Productions
James M. Fortier
Filmmaker
Writer/Producer/Director/DP

Experience               Education               Credits               Awards

2003-09    Creative Director, Naqmayam Communications, California Indian owned Public  Relations & Marketing company. www.naqcom.com.

1996-09    Award winning Writer, Producer, and Director for independent and PBS documentaries.

1995-09    Owner, Turtle Island Productions. Providing video production services, including location scouting, budgeting, crewing, custom production packages and equipment rentals, crew supervision, production management and logistics, and payroll.

1987-09    San Francisco based Director of Photography, Lighting Director and Camera Operator. Working for a variety of broadcast, cable, corporate, documentary, and commercial clients. Productions include multi-camera live teleconferences, broadcasts, and web casts; corporate marketing and product videos, internal communications and training videos; blue screen for the web, video games, DVD and CD ROM based interactive programs for education, entertainment and corporate communications; as well as sports specials, documentaries and commercials. Productions for: NBC, CBS, ABC, TBS, CBC, PBS, Knowledge TV, Sci-Fi Channel, E-Channel, SkyTV, Discovery Channel, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Adobe, Netscape, SGI, Yahoo, Sun, Autodesk, National Geographic, Visa, Intuit and Seagate among others.
 
1988-89    Production Manager/Director of Photography, Breene Kerr Productions, Mt. View, CA. Responsible for coordinating production personnel, broadcast and Director for live teleconferences, soundstage and location productions. Clients included Apple Computer, Intel, 3Com, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, and others.

Education

1984-86    San Francisco State University. BA Radio & Television Arts

1980-83    College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL.  A.A.  Media Arts


Credits

Location Director/DP

• “Indian Country Diaries- Spiral of Fire”  A 90-minute documentary feature for Native American Public Telecommunications and PBS. National PBS premiered in November, 2006.

Writer/Associate Producer/DP

• "Waasa-Inaabidaa: We Look In All Directions" WDSE-TV, PBS Six-part documentary series, and companion website at www.ojibwe.org, covering 500+ years of history and culture of 19 Ojibwe tribes in three states. National PBS Premiere, 2002. APTN (Canada) premiere, November 2003.

Writer/Director/DP

• “Alcatraz Is Not An Island” Documentary feature about the 1969-71
• American Indian occupation of Alcatraz Island. Official selection 2001
  
• Sundance Film Festival. Premiered on PBS nationally in November, 2002
  

Writer/Producer Director/DP

• “Bad Sugar” A 30-minute episode of the national PBS series “Unnatural
• Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?” Produced in cooperation with the
  
• Pima and Tohono O’odham tribes, exploring the link between historical
  
• and social determinants and Type Two Diabetes. Premiered nationally on
  
• PBS in the Spring of 2008.
  
• “Gathering Together” One hour documentary sequel to “Pulling Together”
  
• for the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. Premiered at AIFF, November of 2007.
  
• “Pulling Together” Feature-length documentary with the Muckleshoot Indian
  
• Tribe, premiered at the Palm Springs native American Film Festival, 2005.
  
• "Voices for the Land" Environmental documentary for WDSE-TV, PBS,
  
• Minnesota. Broadcast premiere Nov. 2000.
  
• “Waswagoning Ojibwe Dance Theater” Marketing and promotional video.
  

• “Green Green Water” Documentary feature chronicles the impact of past, present, and future Hydroelectric dams on several Northern Manitoba Cree communities. PBS premiere in the Fall of 2007.

Co-Producer/Director/DP

• “American Lynching” Documentary feature work in progress.
  
• “From These Silent Ashes” Documentary feature work in progress chronicling the story of the Ute war chief Noonch, known by Brigham Young and the Mormons as “Blackhawk.”
  

Co-Producer/Director/DP/Editor

• “Playing Pastime: American Indians, Softball, and Survival” Documentary feature work in progress.

Event Producer/Director

• “30th Anniversary of Alcatraz Occupation” A musical and cultural celebration held on Alcatraz Island. Major press, radio, and TV coverage.

Director of Photography

• “Nehiyawetan: Let’s Speak Cree”, Season one and two, a children's Cree language series. Premiered on APTN fall of 2008. Season two shot in HDTV.
• “The Healing Blanket” Health series for Wabano Center for Aboriginal Health, Ottawa, 2004.
  
•  “Alcatraz Is Not An Island” Documentary feature for PBS. Premiered November, 2002.
  
• “We Hold the Rock” Exhibit video for the National Park Service, Alcatraz Island.
  
• “Great Museums” National PBS series, shot in HDTV, PBS Premiere Fall, 2003.
  
• “Looks Into the Night” Award winning Native American dramatic short starring Tantoo Cardinal. Premiered on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, (Nationwide) Canada.
  
• “Stay Tuned” Pilot for VH1 music documentary series.
  
• “Don't Be a Target” Nationally broadcast special with Dennis Franz.
  
• “In America” Documentary series on immigration, Produced by Echo Pictures, for the International Channel. Silver Telly Award winner.
  
• “History of the Presidio” Documentary video shot in 16x 9 digital wide screen.
  
• DP for hundreds of corporate, broadcast, and cable productions. Drama, live broadcasts, corporate identity, blue screen. Betacam, DV, Hi Def. Sony D600, D700 WS, and HD 790A.

D.P. 2nd Unit

• “Today Is A Good Day: Remembering Chief Dan George” CBC documentary feature. Premiered on CBC.
• “Waasa-Inaabidaa: We Look In All Directions” WDSE-TV, PBS Duluth, Native American documentary.
  
• “America Drinks” The History Channel.
  
• “50x2000” German Television documentary shot in 16x9 digital wide screen.
  

L.D./Cameraman

• NBC's Super Bowl XXVII Special with Dick Enberg.
• CBS's College Bowl Preview and College Basketball Preview shows with Pat O’Brien for three consecutive seasons.
  
• Over 300 live teleconferences/broadcasts for Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Sun Microsystems, AT&T, Cisco Systems, Oracle and Cadence among others.

Awards & Accomplishments

Artist In Residence, UIUC, 2009

Conducted a four-week video production lab as Artist In Residence at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

DuPont Columbia Award for Journalism

“Bad Sugar” Episode Producer/Director for PBS series "Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making US Sick?" 2008

Telly Award        “Gathering Together” Documentary Feature, 2008.

Indian Summer Festival Image Award    “Pulling Together” Award of Distinction Documentary Feature, 2005

Indian Summer Festival Image Award (2) 

“Waasa Inaabidaa: We Look In All Directions” Episode1, “Gakina Awiiya: We Are All Related” Award of Distinction Documentary Feature, 2004

“Waasa Inaabidaa: We Look In All Directions” Episode 6 “Ojibwemowin” Spirit Award Best of Festival 2004

NORCAL Regional Emmy Award    “Alcatraz Is Not An Island” Best Directing 2003

Indian Summer Festival Image Award    “Alcatraz Is Not An Island” Award of Excellence, Best Documentary Feature 2003.

Telly Award      “Alcatraz Is Not An Island” Documentary Feature, 2002

Taos Talking Pictures Festival      “Alcatraz Is Not An Island” Land Grant Award Finalist 2001

American Indian Film Festival     “Alcatraz Is Not An Island” Best Documentary Feature, 1999.

Midwest Regional Emmy Awards    "Waasa-Inaabidaa: We Look In All Directions" WDSE-TV,
Eleven nominations, five awards, including two in best documentary categories, 2003

American Indian Film Festival        "Waasa-Inaabidaa: We Look In All Directions" WDSE-TV, Best Documentary Feature, 2002.

American Indian Film Festival (DP)    “Today Is A Good Day: Remembering Chief Dan George” Best Documentary Feature, 1998

National Education Media Net (DP)    “We Hold The Rock” Bronze Apple Award, Documentary Short, 1997.

National Park Service Award (DP)    “We Hold The Rock” Best Exhibit Video, 1997

American Indian Film Festival (DP)    “Looks Into the Night” Best Live Short Subject Video, 1996

New York Festival (Lighting)    Intel Corp./Breene Kerr Prods. "In Review," Intel Quarterly News Magazine.

Telly Awards (Lighting)            Intel Corp./Breene Kerr Productions. Marketing Video

Joey Award                            (L.D./Cameraman)   

San Jose Film & Video Commission: Ten time winner/finalist.

In addition, James produced the companion website (www.ojibwe.org) for “Waasa Inaabidaa:  We Look In All Directions,” a 6 hour PBS documentary series.  James also taught video production workshops for Native American high school students at the 1997 Native American International Film Expo in Santa Fe, NM., with youth from the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Tribe in 2006, and with First nations and Métis students at Capilano College, Vancouver, 2004.  James volunteered his time working behind the scenes for the American Indian Film Institute in San Francisco, CA in 1998. James was a guest speaker at SFSU, USF, ASU, Brown University, Syracuse University, University of Minnesota, KQED Television, and the Banff Television Conference screening his films and discussing aboriginal filmmaking, and his articles and interviews have appeared in several Bay Area and national publications.  James is a two-time recipient of PBS’s Emerging Filmmaker Fellowships, including the prestigious PBS Producers Academy Workshop at WGBH in Boston. His work in progress film “American Lynching: Strange and Bitter Fruit” was selected to screen at the prestigious Independent Feature Project No Borders International Showcase in New York. Most recently James was selected as the Artist In Residence at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Native American House. Demo reel and references available upon request.

2009 Resume PDF