Over the next few weeks - while we are stuck in place... I will be trying to present some walks down memory lane within our In Progress archive.

I hope you will take a few minutes to watch and learn about the stories that have brought us here as a community of artists and storytellers.... some of these videos will make you laugh, others maybe sad...

Most will take you back to a time in life in your communities where life was just little bit different than it is today. . . . .

And yes..... that is a photo of me, taken by Wendy Drift back in the early 90's while visiting Vince Shute and his family of bears....

Long before In Progress got its name, or was even a thought.... young people were making videos up in Nett Lake Village on the Bois Forte Reservation.

I was working for an organization called Film In The Cities, and was assisting in coordinating a video program for youth living in the area.

It is where I had my first media teaching opportunities. I was a stranger that was welcomed as someone that had something to contribute. This community changed my life, and set me on the path to what would become In Progress.

This was also a time when music videos were all the rage, as were boy bands....

We still work with artists from Nett Lake, and DeDe Drift, the first young person to have a conversation with me back then, serves on our board of directors today.

I am proud that she, her sister Wendy Drift, her daughter Téa Drift-Rivera, and her mother Mavis Drift have all contributed to our work at In Progress. They are in fact - In Progress....

1991 marked my first year of teaching video at the Bug O Nay Ge Shig School, and the first time one of the videos I was connected with won national recognition.

Artist C.t. Taylor came up with the idea to produce a film short that would pay tribute to PEPSI! The soda was a favorite on reservations, but rarely got the commercial attention it's competitor coca cola did.

Chuck's film also represented an early movement of Native filmmakers to move away from documentary filmmaking - one of the few genres at the time that was accepting of Indigenous perspectives (and even then limited).

This short video was groundbreaking in so many ways that might not be immediately appreciated today in an era of instant video. But it was groundbreaking. It is now held in the archives of the Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian in New York because of its historic importance. Thank you Juanita G Corbine Espinosa for publicly recognizing the film at the Two Rivers Film and Video Festival - one of the first Native American film festivals held in the United States.

Side Note: The first time I visited the Bug O Nay Ge Shig School (1989), I drove right up to a metal building and opened a door to find educator Mike Schmid editing video with a student using a camcorder that he had connected to a VCR. In that moment I knew this was a place I would be spending a lot of time with. 30+ years later, this school is still supporting digital storytellers and it is still one of our most important partner communities.

This is a 2 for 1, video throwback... Produced in the year 2000, these videos tell the story of what it meant to come together as a group of artists.... There are a lot of photos, a lot of play, a lot of genuine love.....

It represents some of the first moments where artists from different parts of the state came together to share their stories with one another. It shows some of our first travel experiences. It shows us in our very first storefront studio ever - in Crookston (where we came back to this year).

I remember taking that first bit of video of artist S standing with Sai Thao with storm clouds on the horizon (summer 1999 Grand Marais) . She had just turned 18 years old and was one of the first artists to ever travel with me. We knew then that we were building something very special... we were excited to be traveling, to be connecting with others, and to be sharing our knowledge and resources with others.

In that era... camera and editing resources were expensive and scarce, especially in the towns and villages we worked with. Everything was new and we made lots of mistakes... we were trying to create a community around media that was not centered in how to make money, or how to build a career, but instead how to honor creativity, and culture and community. There were no models out there to follow.....

Anyways, the results of those early years has brought us to what we are today... full circle...

We are an organization built on these values we strived for so long ago.... Ntxhais Thoj, Bienvenida Matias - thank you for keeping us centered.... And all of you from those early years... I love you and am forever grateful.

Another long history of partnership that began before In In Progress, but has continued unto this day.

I chose Indian Humor to show, because it represents the beauty of humor and joy and how you laugh hard so as not to cry. There is an underlying theme to this video about the health risks faced in 1998 due to a government sanctioned diet of commodities that kept the people fed, while killing them slowly to heart disease and diabetes. At that time the average lifespan of a Native American male was 46 years old. A lot has changed since that time. Red Lake Nation is now a leader of the walleye industry and is actively educating others about traditional health practices.

My first experience teaching in Red Lake came in 1995 with an experience through Native Arts Circle. It continued with Intermedia Arts and then transitioned to the Center for Arts Criticism which eventually became In Progress. It was a long journey.

I met so many wonderful creative people who taught me what it meant to advocate and sacrifice for community. Every piece we produced had to be sanctioned by the elders, which often meant, going back and making changes - which we did.

It was also a place that taught me the weight that each video created would have - that each actor and writer and technician would be tied for a lifetime to the stories they created and remembered for it. I have carried that lesson forward in all of my teaching since that time.

There is so much great work that has been created in Red Lake and I will share more in the weeks to come... but I thought we could all use a good laugh and a good reminder about healthy eating.... on this Friday of covid-19.

and R.I.P. John Prentice.... your smile and laughter will always be with me 

Remember - please share this video and others in your network....