team

founder + creative director

Anpa’o Locke is an Afro-Indigenous writer, filmmaker, and curator who is Húŋkpapȟa Lakota and Ahtna Dené (Village of Tazlina), born in the Standing Rock Nation. She was a 2023 Native Lab Fellow and a 2022 Full Circle Fellow at the Sundance Institute, where she developed her short film Kawá, which follows an Afro-Indigenous teen reconnecting with her Native roots. In 2023, she co-curated Imagining Indigenous Cinema at the UCLA Film & Television Archive. This groundbreaking series highlighted over 40 films by US-based Indigenous artists in the post-Standing Rock era. She has also worked as a writer for PBS Digital Studios’ Sovereign Innovations and as an Associate Producer for Best Case Studios.

She is currently writing her debut feature film.

educational lead

Cole Forrest is an Anishinaabe filmmaker, educator, and film programmer from Nipissing First Nation. Cole is a recipient of the King Charles III Coronation Medal for their community work in the arts sector. Cole has supported programming at festivals in both Canada and the USA; including TIFF, imagineNATIVE, VIFF, SFIFF, and Pathways Indigenous Film Festival. Cole is currently the Cinema Artistic Programmer for the Center for Contemporary Arts of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Cole currently teaches Cinema Studies at IAIA. They are grateful to represent their community in all artistic pursuits.