IAIA Students on the Dark Winds film set, courtesy AMC/AMC+

Kahlil Hudson (Tlingit), Associate Professor, Cinematic Arts and Technology (CINE) program at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) says “Indigenous communities are the original storytellers.”

Hudson, who directed Navajo Police: Class 57, a three-part HBO vérité-driven documentary series which following recruits and officials at the Navajo Police Department’s Training Academy, says that “Native American writers and filmmakers are getting their projects greenlit now. It’s fresh, a new perspective.”

Many of these writers and filmmakers are coming out of IAIA’s CINE program and a huge part of this, Hudson says, is the developing relationship of IAIA with AMC/AMC+ and its hit series, Dark Winds, based on Tony Hillerman’s series of books about a Diné police officer.

“AMC approached us to bring some students on to the set about a year and a half ago,” says Hudson. “It took us some time to talk about how that would be possible, how students would benefit and be involved on the show, but we finally selected seven students for the internship program and got them on the set. “They got a first-hand look at the production process in all the departments—camera, electric team, wardrobe, props, cinematography…”

Hudson explains that students were able to work on the set at Camel Rock studios near downtown Santa Fe. The initial internship cohort was a trial run but now it has been deemed successful enough to continue on an ongoing basis.

“The goal of the internship is to expose the participants to the filmmaking process from pitch to screen,” says Fetle Negash, Director, Physical Production, AMC Networks. “The students will interact with Dark Winds crew members as well as AMC Networks executives to receive firsthand understanding of the different types of skillsets that are used to make television shows. The on-set experience will be directly tied to Dark Winds but the executives that participate will be across a range of AMCN projects.”

Avery Hall (MHA Nation, San Carlos Apache, and San Felipe Pueblo) a Junior in IAIA’s CINE program says that a major part of the internship’s effect on him was “to see a team in the Indigenous community come together” on set and to experience the camaraderie that followed. Hall had a chance to work with Chris Eyre (Cheyenne and Arapaho) a Sundance Labs consultant, noted producer, and the director of Smoke Signals, 1998.

“It was great to see someone come from a similar community I came from in a position like that…to see people support his vision,” says Hale.

To schedule an interview, please contact Jason S. Ordaz, Chief Communications Officer, at communications@iaia.edu.