Lightning = new face and first female

Georgina Lightning:  the first Native female director of a feature-length film

By Kathy WiseNamed one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2007 by Filmmaker magazine, Cree Indian director Georgina Lightning is actually not new to Hollywood. But with her latest project, Older than America, she has become something Tinseltown has never seen before—the first Native female director of a feature-length film.

Director Georgina Lightning and her crew on the set of Older than America. Filmed in Minnesota on the Fond du Lac Chippewa reservation, the movie initially drew resistance from the local tribe. But at the wrap party, a council member told Lightning, "It's been the greatest experience for the spirit of the people and our tribe. There is already healing that has started from this."

Native American directors have been making films since the dawn of the celluloid era: before color, before sound. James Young Deer (Winnebago) directed 17 westerns from 1909 to 1924, and he was quickly followed by Edwin Carewe (Chickasaw), who directed close to 60 films from 1914 to 1934 and produced and acted in nearly as many.

But over the following six decades, no major motion picture—with the exception of several self-produced releases by Cherokee actor Will Rogers—would be directed by a Native American. It took Chris Eyre's directorial debut with Smoke Signals in 1998 to jumpstart the Native directorial renaissance. And it has taken Georgina Lightning—and another decade—for the first Native female director to get behind the camera of a feature-length film.
Comment:  For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.

Below:  "Director Georgina Lightning and her crew on the set of Older than America. Filmed in Minnesota on the Fond du Lac Chippewa reservation, the movie initially drew resistance from the local tribe. But at the wrap party, a council member told Lightning, 'It's been the greatest experience for the spirit of the people and our tribe. There is already healing that has started from this.'"