filmmakers
KELLY BYARS – Kelly Byars was born in Lawton, Oklahoma in 1962 – a member of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations of Oklahoma. He moved to New Mexico in 1983 and attended the Institute of American Indian Arts where he graduated in 1985 with a degree in Three-Dimensional Art. He has worked as a stone sculptor for over twenty-five years with exhibitions at local and national venues. Byars then attended the University of New Mexico where he received his B.A. in Media Arts in 2004 and his M.A. in Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies in 2009. He is currently producing two films and directing his documentary Stone Survivors. Byars continues to teach film workshops in local organizations as well as Native communities with his production company REEL INDIAN PICTURES. He also continues to work as an actor in the local community, most recently completing a production at the Hispanic Cultural Center and a publicity campaign for the Albuquerque Journal. As a multi-facetted member of the local arts and educational communities in Albuquerque, Byars would bring knowledge and connections within the local art, film, theater, education and Native communities. His valuable associations with these and other organizations would facilitate involvement and create new ways to link services and programs to communities in need.
- Email Kelly Byars
RAMONA EMERSON – Ramona Emerson is a Diné writer and filmmaker originally from Tohatchi, New Mexico. She received her degree in Media Arts in 1997 from the University of New Mexico and has worked as a professional videographer, writer and editor for over twenty years. Ramona is a Sundance Native Filmmakers Lab Fellow and a Time/Warner Storyteller Fellow and is a graduate of the 2013 CPB/PBS Producers Academy at WGBH Boston. Ramona just finished the first draft of her novel, Shutter and recently received her MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her latest documentary, The Mayors of Shiprock was funded by Vision Maker Media/PBS/CPB and by the newly awarded Beau McNicholas Post Production grant and the Isora Foundation Grant from the NM Film Foundation. Emerson also received a Tribeca All Access grant for a new media/app design for The Shiprock Experience, a companion and community development project being created alongside the documentary. She currently resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico where she and her husband/producer, Kelly Byars run their production company Reel Indian Pictures with their son, Max.
- Email Ramona Emerson