December 15, 2008

All about Stacey Thunder

Stacey Thunder Returns as Host and Producer in Fourth Season of PBS’s “Native Report”Stacey Thunder of the popular Public Broadcasting Service weekly news magazine program, “Native Report,” will be back in the late winter (early 2009) for a fourth season as host and producer. “Native Report,” a program that is geared toward both a Native and non-Native American viewing audience, celebrates Native culture and heritage. Past programs have included talks with tribal elders and some of Indian Country’s most influential leaders.

“Today, there is so much negative news reported about Native communities,” says Thunder. “I am proud to say that “Native Report” brings positive stories about tribes and peoples-–our rich histories, cultures and traditions, including lively discussions about contemporary issues-–to an overwhelmingly appreciative audience.”
And:Thunder is a citizen of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe in northern Minnesota. She is a practicing attorney and serves as general counsel for the Red Lake Band. She is co-owner with world-renowned musician Robby Romero of the Taos, N.M.-based Eagle Thunder Entertainment, an independent indigenous entertainment company with four divisions: film production; music label; music publishing; and artist management.

Recently, Thunder acted in her first feature-length independent film as “Julie” in “Cold Feet,” a romantic comedy that channels the Hepburn/Grant films of the 1940s. She also was cast as the host and narrator of the film, “America’s Last Frontier: Melting the Hearts of Men,” an important documentary on the U.S. establishment and protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and as host of “Native Children’s Survival,” a feature-length documentary presentation of that organization’s projects.

In addition to her roles in television and film, Thunder also has served as executive producer of three CDs: “Painting the World”; “P. Town Boyz”; and “Native Children’s Survival: if not now, when? if not you, who?”
Comment:  For more on the subject, see Native Documentaries and News.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Native Report?

I lived in South Dakota from 1995 - 2007 (minus a year in New York working for Indian Country Today) and to the best of my recollection, not once was this program ever broadcast in the Rapid City area.

POSSIBLE EXPLANATION: The non-Indian media (to include PBS) in western South Dakota thrives on wholly negative coverage of Indian people mainly for the amusement of their audiences. The only time there is any positively-oriented Indian programming is once a year on so-called "Native American Day" - and then all they offer up is a few hours of the same documentaries from the year before.

Dynamic and innovative Indian people like Ms. Thunder leave the state forever once they graduate from college.