Independent news from the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance

Film financier plans to produce 12 films in Minnesota

JT Shining Oneside shared stories about her Ojibwe and Anishinaabe inheritance during the Native American Heritage Month Celebration on Nov. 15. She spoke about the coming-of-age and traditional birth ceremonies. (Photo credit/ Adrianna Adame)

Jerry Seppala, a political fundraiser who’s planning to produce up to a dozen films in Minnesota through his company, Wayzata-based Griffin Productions, said raising cash to make a film is pretty straightforward.

Pitching a film “is no different than an other private equity deal … it’s a product like any other. There are risks involved like any other [business proposition],” Seppala said when I called him to discuss the world of film finance Tuesday morning.

Griffin Productions wants to produce…


read more

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear is the founder and director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, a 501-C-3 nonprofit organization with offices in Bismarck, N.D. and the Fort Berthold Reservation. Jodi spent 15 years reporting for the mainstream press. She's been awarded prestigious Nieman and John S. Knight journalism fellowships at Harvard and Stanford, respectively. She also an MIT Knight Science Journalism Project fellow. Her writing is featured in "The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity," published by Columbia University Press. Jodi currently serves as a Society of Professional Journalists at-large board member, an SPJ Foundation board member, and she chairs the SPJ Freedom of Information Committee. Jodi has won top journalism awards from mainstream and Native press organizations. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.