A Community for Supporting Indigenous Storytelling

Native Lens is a community that supports and fosters Indigenous storytelling, creating captivating Indigenous documentaries, experimental and narrative films that tell the stories of Indigenous peoples across North America. By showcasing and amplifying these stories, we hope to bring awareness to the diversity and rich heritage of Indigenous cultures, languages and histories.

Who We are

From the Southern Ute Reservation, to the World

Native Lens serves Indigenous people and communities from across the continent, radiating out from our headquarters in Ignacio, Colorado on the Southern Ute Reservation. The Ute people are the oldest residents of Colorado, inhabiting the mountains and vast areas of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Eastern Nevada, Northern New Mexico and Arizona.

According to tribal history, the Utes inhabited the area since the beginning of time. The Southern Ute Tribe, with its rich cultural traditions, has approximately 1400 members and maintains a close relationship with sister tribes – Northern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute. The Four Corners region (where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona meet) is a vibrant media landscape where Indigenous narratives are prominently featured. The area is the ancestral home of the Diné (Navajo), Pueblo and Apache people, who continue to inform the storytelling traditions of the land.

Native Lens is proud to collaborate with and showcase the work of Ute storytellers and community members. The following Native Lens films feature Ute filmmakers or participants:

Culture Within the Ice

Diné/Navajo, Native Lens Media Fellowship, Nature/Environment, Non-fiction, Southern Ute, Sports, Ute, White Mountain Apache

A Ute elder takes on the role of mentor, guiding the younger generations towards self-love, acceptance, and embracing life through the thrilling and challenging sport of ice climbing.

Poetic Sovereignty

Diné, Fort Lewis College, Lakota, Native Lens Media Fellowship, Non-fiction, Poetry/Spoken Word, Ute

In teaching the next generation of Indigenous writers, Diné poet Esther Belin emphasizes how we get our creativity, language and songs from the land.

Setting the Table

Cheyenne, Diné/Navajo, Poetry/Spoken Word, Pyramid Lake Paiute, Shoshone, Southern Ute, Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, Ute

"Written and performed by Lyla June and Tanaya Winder, “Setting The Table,"" speaks to the resiliency of Native Peoples in overcoming cultural erasure and the power we have to break the cycle. "

A Vibrant Community for Indigenous Film

Via our film and training initiatives, Native Lens invites Indigenous, First Nations, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian peoples to submit films and stories to contribute to our vibrant community. By uniting and raising up all Indigenous voices, we bring visibility to Indigenous-led storytelling and documentary filmmaking.

Since our founding in 2020 we have worked with countless Indigenous documentary filmmakers–from teenagers to elders, hailing from reservations around the southwest, to Hawaii and the Canadian west coast, up to the northern reaches of arctic Canada, to the eastern Indigenous tribes and Gulf of Mexico and everywhere in between. While Native Lens holds non-fiction storytelling as our core, we also encourage and welcome film and video art of all genres.

By showcasing our disparate yet interrelated stories, we can help to share knowledge and resources for a more vibrant future – one in which Indigenous languages, cultures and histories are celebrated and protected.