Reel Job's Film School. Future is Bright
With the completion of Mallards; Road we have already reached a broadcast agreement with the new Heritage Broadcast Network starting in January 2021. This is a singular acheivement by a Native Led School and Production Company. If that were not enough, two more films, "Mato Paha:Rally to Protect Bear Butte" 2010 and "Who Will Bury the Dead?" have also been signed for broadcast on the same new network. All three films were done largely by young people from the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Reel Jobs Film School is ready to move forward once Covid is behind us. We are looking forward to new students, new films and progress towards more true Native American Entertainment in the growing Media Market. To do this we are looking for allies who understand, share and want to support our vision. By supporting this web site through Flip Cause, you can be a part of something exciting and fresh! If you have more to add look below!
Reel Jobs would also like to expand its class offerings to Rapid City. Lakota youth desperately need opportunity for careers that offer them the ability to make real contributions and real incomes. We would like folks in the film industry to take an informed look at what we have achieved and talk with us abut how we might move forward. Our young actors, editors and set designers need work and guidance as we move forward. Please feel free to contact us should you share our passion for diversity, have a background in and can teach a film discipline or are interested in producing with us! .
With the completion of Mallards; Road we have already reached a broadcast agreement with the new Heritage Broadcast Network starting in January 2021. This is a singular acheivement by a Native Led School and Production Company. If that were not enough, two more films, "Mato Paha:Rally to Protect Bear Butte" 2010 and "Who Will Bury the Dead?" have also been signed for broadcast on the same new network. All three films were done largely by young people from the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Reel Jobs Film School is ready to move forward once Covid is behind us. We are looking forward to new students, new films and progress towards more true Native American Entertainment in the growing Media Market. To do this we are looking for allies who understand, share and want to support our vision. By supporting this web site through Flip Cause, you can be a part of something exciting and fresh! If you have more to add look below!
Reel Jobs would also like to expand its class offerings to Rapid City. Lakota youth desperately need opportunity for careers that offer them the ability to make real contributions and real incomes. We would like folks in the film industry to take an informed look at what we have achieved and talk with us abut how we might move forward. Our young actors, editors and set designers need work and guidance as we move forward. Please feel free to contact us should you share our passion for diversity, have a background in and can teach a film discipline or are interested in producing with us! .
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Founded in 2013, Reel Jobs Film School, funded by a USDA Rural Jobs Training Grant, is a program of Cloud Horse, and is entering its fifth year. In those years we have had almost 40 different people participate in training. In our three day, once a month workshops, we have covered, Camera. Lighting, Sound Recording, Wardrobe, Make-up, Story Writing, Production Management and Film Acting.
We have looked deeply at every element of low budget but great technical and high story quality, documentary and narrative films. Our method is primarily “hands on” and the proof in the talent of local folks is there for the world to see. “Who Will Bury the Dead?” Nominated for Best Feature Documentary, at the Native American Film Festival in San Francisco, covers 150 years of the Lakota/ Dakota Christian Experience, with a look at the emerging reality of spiritual decolonization, and is now available on Amazon Prime. “Mallards Road” which began shooting in the summer of 2014 is now, having overcome every mountain, completely shot and is in the editing stage. The script written by Mark St. Pierre is about finding a lifetime partner, and draws on the metaphor using the Mallard’s commitment to its mate, from the Lakota culture. It will soon be scored and out for the world to see. This film is making real history, it has over 40 community cast members, and everyone behind the camera is also from here. It will be the truest look at contemporary life here ever filmed, and…all done by Native film makers and actors. Student film makers even got to direct actual scenes! Our goal of creating films that speak to people here and the world, is being achieved. We have made numerous student short films like, “Building Tiny Homes On Pine Ridge” and “In Mustang Country” that can be seen on You Tube, as can a trailer for “Who Will Bury the Dead?” or an earlier film “Mato-Paha: Rally to Protect Bear Butte.” We have learned a ton about film making as well as how to educate folks here in film production and we are just at the beginning. It is our goal to see our non-profit make a financial and healing impact in folks lives while growing a very real digital story telling industry. |
2009-2010 “Mato-Paha: Rally to Protect Bear Butte.” Began this project under Cloud Horse Art Institute.
2013 Founded the Reel Jobs Film School - Summer Theatre Production of "Ice Wolf". Began work on "Who Will Bury the Dead?" 2014 Acquisition and remodeling of 2 building campus in Kyle. - Play writer's workshop through SD Humanities Council - Began shooting "Mallard's Road" 2015 Cloud Horse helps film Fallen Plume: A student film on Date Rape - Reel Jobs film School is created: First of its Kind in North America 2016 Film School Continues - Summer:First half Mallard’s Road Shot 2017 Production- "In Mustang Country" - New film School Classes 2018 Production "Building Tiny Homes on Pine Ridge" - New Students and Second Half of Mallard’s Road Shot - "Who Will Bury the Dead?" Completed. 2019 Mallard’s Road Rough Edited and Scored by students & shown to Focus Groups - Mallard's Road Screened at Skinsfest in LA & Nominated for Best Narrative - Mallard’s Road Color, Sound Corrected, Final Cut Produced - Mallards’ Road Signs for Broadcast with The Heritage Network, Jan 2021 - Mato Paha: Rally to Protect Bear Butte Signed for Broadcast 2020 "Who Will Bury the Dead?: The Death of Christianity in Lakota Country?” Signed for Broadcast. |
OUR PARTICIPANTS
Our participants represent every aspect of life here with all its struggles and complications, still we persist! We feel we are inventing a training model that can be utilized by other tribal people to help grow a Native American Film and Television Industry and maybe one day… a network.
Some of the production crew for this summer’s 10-day shoot had only six months of training. Grief, drugs, alcohol, but worse, lack of belief in self or the ability to hang in there till you complete a film, and in doing that, acquire real resilience, have all been factors in our student’s growth and success and the school being flexible and supportive.
Some of the production crew for this summer’s 10-day shoot had only six months of training. Grief, drugs, alcohol, but worse, lack of belief in self or the ability to hang in there till you complete a film, and in doing that, acquire real resilience, have all been factors in our student’s growth and success and the school being flexible and supportive.
OUR AMAZING STAFF
Shannon Wray, from LA, who grew up in the business and has been a professional for over 40 years, is our Production Management Teacher.
Raul Paz Pastrana, an in demand, award winning Mexican-American film maker from New York City, has encouraged our students in learning Camera, Lighting, Sound and Digital Workflow as well as Story Development and Digital Editing and made it all FUN.
Jack Stich of JSA Productions in Rapid City, is our hands on, coach and teacher in actual
production methods and the technical side of film making and abay sat three days of our summer shoot making a powerful teaching machine. Michael Matucci, a film maker and actor from LA had our folks shoot eight stories in four days, loading, moving equipment, setting up and tearing down, downloading and organizing files in preparation for a very intense summer2018 shoot schedule that went form 7AM - 11PM daily, July 15-25, 2018.
Michael Matucci also did a very nice short film on our school called “Poverty Porn, Media Portrayal of Minorities and a Remedy from Pine ridge” and can be seen on You Tube on his Systems Busters Network. We are always looking for teachers from the larger industry with a partners with a real sensitivity to our situation and our dreams of development. We want to be teaching film in some very nice facility years from now, but for now our old Head-Start Campus in the middle of Kyle is a god-send! We just put new plumbing in building 2!!
With the completion of “Mallard’s Road”; we are sure the world will find out what we have been up to and be very pleasantly surprised at what a Strong Native Community like Pejuta Haka,(Medicine Root), can do.
Raul Paz Pastrana, an in demand, award winning Mexican-American film maker from New York City, has encouraged our students in learning Camera, Lighting, Sound and Digital Workflow as well as Story Development and Digital Editing and made it all FUN.
Jack Stich of JSA Productions in Rapid City, is our hands on, coach and teacher in actual
production methods and the technical side of film making and abay sat three days of our summer shoot making a powerful teaching machine. Michael Matucci, a film maker and actor from LA had our folks shoot eight stories in four days, loading, moving equipment, setting up and tearing down, downloading and organizing files in preparation for a very intense summer2018 shoot schedule that went form 7AM - 11PM daily, July 15-25, 2018.
Michael Matucci also did a very nice short film on our school called “Poverty Porn, Media Portrayal of Minorities and a Remedy from Pine ridge” and can be seen on You Tube on his Systems Busters Network. We are always looking for teachers from the larger industry with a partners with a real sensitivity to our situation and our dreams of development. We want to be teaching film in some very nice facility years from now, but for now our old Head-Start Campus in the middle of Kyle is a god-send! We just put new plumbing in building 2!!
With the completion of “Mallard’s Road”; we are sure the world will find out what we have been up to and be very pleasantly surprised at what a Strong Native Community like Pejuta Haka,(Medicine Root), can do.
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
We had cooperation from every element in the community, and thus send our warmest thanks to OST Tribal Elk and Buffalo, Kyle Pow-wow Committee, Kyle Senior Citizens, Little Wound School, Angel’s Convenience Store, Kyle Grocery, Puckett Stables, and Black Feather Buffalo Ranch to name a few!
Community members, part of a local theater group,Pejuta Haka Community Players, have supplied all renovation labor. Oglala Lakota College's building trades program donated new plumbing and labor.
Community members, part of a local theater group,Pejuta Haka Community Players, have supplied all renovation labor. Oglala Lakota College's building trades program donated new plumbing and labor.
An impressive line up of Native American Actors, producers and production professionals have served as guest instructors to date!
Hollywood Costume Designer
Cathy Smith, presents workshop
"Costume is Storytelling" |
Cathy is best known for her authentic costumes in films such as Dances with Wolves, Comanche Moon, Geronimo and Son of the Morning Star – for which she won the Emmy for Excellence in Costume Design.
Growing up on a ranch in western South Dakota, bordering two Sioux reservations, led to her relentless pursuit of authentic, traditional Native American art forms, design, and techniques – which have become a much sought after commodity for everyone from museum curators to international collectors to Hollywood producers. Cathy has spent her lifetime participating in the ceremonies and cultural life-ways of relatives on the Cheyenne River Reservation and refining her skills in the sacred art of porcupine quillwork. “Maintaining these traditional arts is imperative as they are a part of our American heritage in danger of being lost. Not only are they beautiful and useable, but when made with integrity, they are imbued with power & spiritual meaning.” Cathy lectures on the art & culture of the Western Plains at museums and events, from the Smithsonian to Christy’s in NYC. She has consulted on a majority of the Western genre films of the past 20 years and exhibited at the National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame and the Charlie Russell Show, among others. She restores original artifacts for museums & collectors and creates custom clothing and accoutrements not only for film and museums, but for clients worldwide. Now painting the Native American WestCathy has a studio in Nambe, NM and the Black Hills of South Dakota. |
German Valle
Cinematographer German is a cinematographer and lighting technician. His experience spans from features, episodic, and commercials to music videos and documentaries. He has worked on numerous multi-million dollar feature films including Footloose, The Change Up, Big Mommas House 3, Talladega Nights, The Strangers, and Leatherheads. Recently, he was the Best Boy Electric for Tyler Perry’s House of Payne season 4 and 5. He has been the Director of Photography for several independent films including Letters to a Father, Half Empty, Buck Johnson, Yesterday Gods, Harvest and many more. These films have premiered at numerous Film Festivals and taken many prizes including Best cinematography. He has shot many music videos, which have day viewed on BET, MTV and MUSE.
German received his Education from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts School of Filmmaking, where he studied closely under his mentor, Robert Collins, the three-time Emmy winning Director of Photography. |
Irene Bedard
"Pocahontas" Irene is an actress and producer, known for her role as Pocahontas (1995), The Tree of Life (2011) and Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998).
She was the physical model for the Pocahontas character in the Disney films. SHe was also the voice of Pocahontas in n Pocahontas (1995) the Disney animated film, and went on to play Pocahontas' mother in The New World (2005). Irne is the daughter of an Inupiat Eskimo and a French Canadian/Cree Eskimo name is Goodiarook, which means "someone who dropped." |
Tara Ansley
(Forbes top 1000 Young Female Entrepreneurs) Already a top line producer in major films like Hunger Games, Tara taught the management protocol for feature film and the job of the 1st AD or Assistant Director in that process to 15 Reel Jobs participants.
She also showed the students how a film is managed in the pre-production and production stages so each department from props to sound capture and talent know where and when they are to work. She shared the forms used for each step of the process and who is responsible. Tara further shared how a script is broken down scene by scene to create a budget.Tara covered an amazingly dense content in three days and we thank her. Tara left saying, “I will break down the entire script and work with participants to complete all of the pre-production steps.” Tara was assisted by Whitney M. Pate (Assistant Reel Jobs Coordinator) who himself has 18 years in feature film and TV working with camera, sound and lighting and is a Union Member. |
