Sydney_Freeland

Sydney Freeland

Sydney Freeland

Native American film director

Sydney Freeland (born October 10, 1980) is a Native American (Navajo) filmmaker. She wrote and directed the short film Hoverboard (2012) and the film Drunktown's Finest (2014), which garnered numerous acclaims after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.[1] Her second film, Deidra and Laney Rob a Train, debuted at Sundance and was released on Netflix in 2017.[2]

Quick Facts Born, Education ...

Early life

Freeland was born in Gallup, New Mexico, United States in 1980 to a Navajo father and a Scottish mother, and she was raised on a Navajo reservation. Freeland attended Academy of Art University in San Francisco.[3] She is a 2004 Fulbright scholar, focusing her scholarship on a field study of indigenous peoples in Ecuador. She has a Master of Fine Arts in film, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in computer animation. Freeland is a 2007 Disney Scholarship recipient and a 2008 Disney Fellowship semifinalist. Freeland is also a 2009 Sundance Institute Native Lab fellow.[3][4]

Career

Prior to making her first feature-length film, Drunktown's Finest, Freeland previously worked as a production assistant, as a writer and as a camera intern.[5] Freeland worked for a number of different media companies, including The Food Network, Walt Disney, Comedy Central, and National Geographic.[6] Freeland directed a six-minute short, Hoverboard, utilizing Kickstarter to help fund the short.[7] The film was inspired by Back to the Future Part II. Drunktown's Finest is her second venture into filmmaking. The 95-minute-long film[8] is a coming-of-age story about the complex issues surrounding identity and the struggles faced by Native American people.[8][9] The film's name is inspired by a controversial 20/20 segment on ABC News, which branded the town of Gallup, New Mexico as "Drunk Town, USA", after the increase of instances of alcoholism on the border of the Navajo Nation.[10] Freeland wrote and directed Drunktown's Finest as a way to combat negative stereotypes of her home community.[8] Freeland, who is herself a transgender woman, also directed a digital series about queer and trans women called Her Story.[11] The series was nominated for the newly created Emmy Award category of Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama.[12]

In 2014 Freeland was named a United States Artists (USA) Fellow.[13]

On March 19, 2022, Freeland joined as a director for the upcoming superhero streaming series Echo for Disney+.[14] In 2022, she was included in the Fast Company Queer 50 list.[15]

Filmography

Awards and nominations

More information Award, Year ...

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Sciortino, Karley (19 February 2015). "Why You Should See Drunktown's Finest This Weekend". Vogue. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  2. [2]
    Linden, Sheri (1 February 2017). "'Deidra & Laney Rob a Train': Film Review, Sundance 2017". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  3. [3]
    "Academy of Art University Alumni". Academy of Art University. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  4. [4]
    Silverstein, Melissa. "Sundance Women Directors: Meet Sydney Freeland". Women and Hollywood. Indiewire. Archived from the original on 10 September 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  5. [5]
    Gatewood, Tara. "Shifting Views with Drunktown's Finest". Native Peoples. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  6. [6]
    "Hoverboard". PBS Online Film Festival. PBS. Archived from the original on 15 January 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  7. [7]
    Freeland, Sydney. "Hoverboard". Kickstarter. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  8. [8]
    "Shifting Views with Drunktown's Finest". nativepeoples.com.
  9. [9]
    "Director Sydney Freeland Discusses Drunktown's Finest - Filmmaker Magazine". Filmmaker Magazine. 23 January 2014.
  10. [10]
    Brodeur, Paul. "Combating Alcohol Abuse in Northwestern New Mexico: Gallup's Fighting Back and Healthy Nations Programs". Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
  11. [11]
    Jusino, Teresa (9 September 2015). "Interview: Her Story Director Sydney Freeland on Trans People Telling Trans Stories". The Mary Sue. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
  12. [12]
    Brighe, Mari (31 July 2016). "The Emmy-Nominated Trans Web Series Her Story Could Change Everything". The Advocate. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  13. [13]
    "United States Artists » Sydney Freeland". Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  14. [14]
    Barnhardt, Adam (March 19, 2022). "Marvel's Echo Adds Reservation Dogs Director". ComicBook.com. Archived from the original on March 20, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  15. [15]
    "Sydney Freeland is No. 41 on the 2022 Fast Company Queer 50 list". Fast Company. Retrieved 2022-06-19.
  16. [16]
    "Sydney Freeland". IMDb.
  17. [17]
    "Sydney Freeland". IMDb.
  18. [18]
    From the Heathers series page on HBO Nordic streaming service.
  19. [19]
    "Winners announced at AIFF awards celebration". mailtribune.com.
  20. [20]
    heartlandfilm. "2014 Heartland Film Festival Announces Grand Prize Winners, Awards Over $115,000 to Independent Filmmakers". Heartland Film.
  21. [21]
    "2014 OUTFEST LOS ANGELES AWARDS". Outfest. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
  22. [22]
    "AFME 2014 Award Winners". abqfilmx.com. Archived from the original on 2015-02-28. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
  23. [23]
    "'Drunktown' and 'Rhymes' Rule American Indian Film Festival Awards". Indian Country Today Media Network.com. Archived from the original on 2015-05-25. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
  24. [24]
    "American Indian Motion Picture Awards Show". aifisf.com. Archived from the original on 2014-11-03.
  25. [25]
    "Nominees/Winners | Television Academy". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Sydney_Freeland, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.