The Team
Jesse Short Bull (Member of Oglala Sioux Tribe) is a writer and director with a deep connection to his home in the Badlands of South Dakota. LAKOTA NATION VS. UNITED STATES (2022), his most recent film, premiered at Tribeca in 2022 and has received an Emmy Award for Best Documentary and Best Director. The recipient of a fellowship from the Sundance Documentary Fund, Short Bull is also the first Indigenous filmmaker to ever be named to the prestigious DOC NYC Shortlist program. A graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts, Short Bull previously received a 2016 Sundance Institute Native American and Indigenous Program Development Grant and also attended the Creative Producing Summit at Sundance.
DAVID FRANCE – CO-DIRECTOR
David France is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, New York Times bestselling author, and award-winning investigative journalist, France directed HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE (2012), which received Academy and Emmy nominations and a Peabody Award. His 2017 film, THE DEATH & LIFE OF MARSHA P. JOHNSON, a Netflix Original Documentary, won the Outfest “Freedom Award” and a special jury recognition from Sheffield International Documentary Festival. He won a BAFTA, Peabody, Teddy, and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights award for WELCOME TO CHECHNYA (2020), which premiered at Sundance. David’s latest film, HBO’s HOW TO SURVIVE A PANDEMIC (2022), won The Cinema for Peace Award on Global Health 2022 and an Emmy award for Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary.
JHANE MYERS – PRODUCER
JHANE MYERS (Comanche and Blackfeet Nations) is an Emmy award winning filmmaker, Producer Guild of America nominee in 2023 for the six time Primetime Emmy nominated and winning “Prey” (20th Century/Disney), and Sundance Alumni, recognized for her passion and dedication to films surrounding preserving the legacies of Native language, human rights and Communities. Myers is currently a Gotham-Cannes 2024 producer fellow and is producing a documentary on the longest serving US political prisoner and Native American activist Leonard Peltier (Public Square Films) and a narrative feature titled “Will to Win” (Kirkpatrick & Kinslow Productions).
PAUL MCGUIRE – PRODUCER
Paul McGuire is an established producer and showrunner, his documentaries include the Amazon Studios film FLIGHT/RISK (2022), about the Boeing 737 Max disasters and the subsequent cover-up of corporate negligence. For Showtime he produced the documentary series JJ Abram’s UFO (2021), and for HBO he developed and packaged the Covid documentary HOW TO SURVIVE A PANDEMIC (2022). He also produced: the series DOGS (2018) for Netflix; a feature doc about the Women’s March, THIS IS PERSONAL (2019), which premiered at Sundance; and the critically acclaimed HBO series, THE CASE AGAINST ADNAN SYED (2019).
BIRD RUNNINGWATER – PRODUCER
Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne and Mescalero Apache Tribal Nations) was raised on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico. He is a Producer and Executive Producer for film and television and most recently signed a first look deal to create content with Amazon Studios. He is currently serving as a Co-Executive Producer on the TV show SOVEREIGN currently in development with Ava DuVernay, Warner Brothers Television, and Array Filmworks; And, he is an Executive Producer on Erica Tremblay’s debut feature FANCY DANCE which premiered in Competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Prior to launching his producing career, Runningwater guided the Sundance Institute’s commitment to Indigenous Filmmakers for 20 years nurturing new generations of filmmakers through the Institute’s Labs and Sundance Film Festival.
JODI ARCHAMBAULT – IMPACT & EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Jodi Archambault (Hunkpapa and Oglala Lakota) is currently living on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. She grew up in the Pejuta Haka district in Kyle, SD in the homelands of the Oglala. Jodi is the Executive Producer for REZ BALL, a Netflix feature film and also is Executive Producer for the documentary LAKOTA NATION VS. UNITED STATES (2022). Jodi also works for Anpo, a newly established Indigenous-led nonprofit organization, that supports field-building, land restoration, rematriation, and policy work to restore and protect Indigenous Peoples’ generational connections with our lands, languages, and cultures. Previously, Jodi worked at the White House as a Special Assistant to President Obama in the Domestic Policy Council.
KEVIN JENNINGS – CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
KEVIN JENNINGS – CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
NIKA SOON-SHIONG – EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Nika Soon-Shiong is an Executive Producer of the upcoming films Sundial and Shooting the Messenger and is also producing Takeover, a documentary about the destructive impact of private equity. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Fund for Guaranteed Income, which works with movement leaders to re-imagine the social safety net. Nika also serves on the Board of Committee to Protect Journalists as well as the Compton Development Corporation, and is the Board Chair of One Fair Wage. She is a doctoral candidate researching biometric surveillance at Oxford and serves on the National Council of Equal Education, a grassroots student movement in South Africa