Film Work

these hands: a story of vernan kee // smart wool & weston backcountry // co-director, producer, photographer

We teamed up with Smartwool, Weston Backcountry, and the National Forest Foundation to create a collection of winter gear that gives back. The exclusive ski sock was designed in collaboration with Natives Outdoor member and Diné Navajo artist, Vernan Kee.

Vernan focuses on his surroundings and upbringing in his work—often honoring cultural elements such as traditional weaving and the four sacred mountains. For this collection, Vernan knew it was a natural fit to feature art inspired by one of the fastest and most respected birds in Navajo culture, the red-tailed hawk.

get out the vote arizona // rural utah project // director & producer (2020)

At the end of 2019, when the Rural Utah Project began to expand its programs into the Arizona portion of the Navajo Nation through the Rural Arizona Program, we knew that we needed a different approach. Instead of investing in a conventional digital advertising program, we chose instead to invest in individuals and content creators who were already organizing within their own communities, in their own voices. In a unique collaboration between the Rural Utah Project and NativesOutdoors, we set out to do just that

the c-team: beer league mountain biking on the colorado trail // fat tire // talent & drone op (2020)

The C-Team is a mountain bike film celebrating Fat Tire's 30th Anniversary. Inspired by the fabled mountain bike ride through Europe that spawned the craft beer icon, we assembled a ragtag crew to ride more than 500 miles down legendary Colorado Trail, from Denver to Durango, stopping in the mountain towns nestled along the route, in search of cold beer and good times.

welcome to gwichyaa zhee // director & producer (2019)

Just north of the Arctic Circle, the Gwich’in people are fighting to protect the lands and caribou from oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—a place that has provided them with a rich and bountiful existence since time immemorial. Indigenous groups in southeastern Utah are doing much the same, seeking to defend their homeland and cultural heritage from energy and mining exploitation in Bears Ears National Monument. "Welcome to Gwichyaa Zhee" is a short film that explores the commonalities and differences between the two, and why the Gwich’in people need our support.

episode 17: mt tukuvinivatz // the fifty project & cody townsend // talent (2019)

Mountains are a skier's passion, but for many people in North America, they're far more than that. They're a source of life, death, spirits, ancestry and most important, it's their home. Joining with Len Necefer PHD, Diné (Navajo), the CEO of Native Outdoors and a professor of Native American Studies along with Connor Ryan, Húŋkpapȟa (Lakota), Townsend goes into the La Sal Mountains, the ancestral homelands of the; Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute), Diné (Navajo), and ancestral Puebloan peoples, to ski as well as talk and learn about their individual connections with the mountains and how important they are not to just skiers, but to the world.

The FIFTY is a project following Cody Townsend as he attempts to climb and ski all fifty of the lines and mountains chronicled in the book, "The 50 Classic Ski Descents of North America."

messengers: a running story about bears ears and grand staircase escalante // talent (2018)

On December 4, 2017, President Trump declared a drastic reduction of Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments. This is the largest elimination of protected land in American history…and the President had made his decision without ever stepping foot there. 

On January 13, 2018, we gathered a group of friends and ran 250 miles across both monuments in a single weekend to see for ourselves what would be left protected.

Now more than ever we believe in celebrating the things that unite us. Our run was about finding commonalities in the midst of a divisive political landscape and standing in coalescence— tribal members, athletes, dirtbags — for our public lands. We hope our footsteps carry a message: wild places are worth protecting, and sometimes the first step in doing that is to take another.