James Fortier

James Fortier established Turtle Island Productions in 1995 as an independent, full-service media communications company with a variety of broadcast, cable, and corporate clients, while also specializing in Native American and First Nations productions. James is an award-winning Writer/Producer/Director working primarily in video, television, and web site production.

He has just completed Pulling Together, a feature-length documentary about the Muckleshoot Indian tribe’s cultural revival in the Pacific Northwest’s Tribal Canoe Journey. James was the Associate Producer and Writer for the five-time Emmy Award winning Waasa-inaabidaa: We Look In All Directions, a six-hour national PBS documentary series focusing on the history of the Ojibway people of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The series also received the Best Documentary Feature Award at the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco. He was also the producer for the companion web site at http://www.ojibwe.org.

James also directed, co-wrote, and was the Director of Photography (DP) for the documentary “Alcatraz Is Not An Island,” and received an Emmy for his directing. The film also received the Best Documentary Feature Award at the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco, and was selected by the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. He was the Co-Producer and Co-Director of the Alcatraz Occupation 30th Anniversary Celebration/Concert and Cultural Event on Alcatraz in 1999. James was also the Director of Photography for “We Hold the Rock,” a short video which is part of the new permanent exhibit on Alcatraz Island commemorating the 1969 Indian occupation of the island.

In 1998, James worked with Cree filmmaker Lorretta Todd on her award-winning CBC documentary on the life of Chief Dan George.

James is currently working on a number of projects. He is the Director and DP for a 90-minute feature documentary for Native American Public Telecommunications/PBS to air nationally on PBS. He is also the Co-Producer and DP for the documentary “American Lynching.” And he is the Co-Producer and DP for “Green Green Water,” a feature-length documentary focusing on the devastating cultural and environmental impacts of Manitoba Hydro dam developments for Cree communities in northern Manitoba (http://www.greengreenwater.com).

Since 1987 James has provided his skills for hundreds of productions for broadcast, cable, corporate, industrial, and educational clients including TBS, CBS, NBC, ABC, ESPN, CBC, PBS, Knowledge TV, E-CHANNEL, Sci Fi Channel, History Channel, Apple TV, Hewlett-Packard TV, Intel, Electronic Arts, Cisco, Visa, and many more. Recently, Jim was the DP for “Stay Tuned,” a documentary series pilot with host Peter Coyote. James was also recently the DP for the documentary series “In America,” produced for the International Channel, and the DP for the PBS series “Great Museums,” shot in HDTV, as well as for a documentary on the history of the Presidio in San Francisco.

James taught video production workshops for Native American high school students at the 1997 Native Americas International Film Expo in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has also been active working behind the scenes for the American Indian Film Institute in San Francisco. He has appeared as a guest speaker at numerous colleges and universities nationwide, on KQED Television in San Francisco, and the Banff Television Conference, and his articles and interviews on aboriginal filmmaking have appeared in several national publications. James was twice a recipient of PBS’s Emerging Filmmaker Fellowships, including the prestigious PBS Producers Academy Workshop at WGBH in Boston.

On a personal note, James was born in Nipigon, Ontario, Canada. He has strong ties to his Métis and Ojibway relatives in Thunder Bay, in Nipigon, and on the Pic River Ojibway First Nation Reserve. He was raised near Chicago and moved to California in 1983 to finish film school at San Francisco State University, where he completed course work for a BA in Broadcast Communications Arts.

Films

• Alcatraz Is Not an Island