February 21, 2017






'Badger Creek' Profiles Contemporary  Blackfeet 
Family  Values on Montana Reservation

(Lincoln, Nebraska): What does it take for a contemporary Native family to thrive on their reservation? Badger Creek is a portrait of Native resilience as seen through a year in the life of three generations of a Blackfeet family living on the reservation in Montana. The loving and sober Momberg family members run a prosperous ranch, live a traditional world view and are relearning their language.

This half-hour documentary is a portrait of a Blackfeet (Pikuni) family, the Mombergs, who live on the lower Blackfeet Reservation near the banks of Badger Creek. In addition to running their ranch, they practice a traditional Blackfeet cultural lifestyle, which sustains and nourishes them. They send their children to a Blackfeet language immersion school and participate in Blackfeet spiritual ceremonies. 

The film profiles family life through four seasons in the magnificent and traditional territory of the Pikuni Nation. We witness the family's three generations, who live under the same roof, work hard, laugh, play, love and support each other through the good and hard times. Badger Creek allows the viewer to witness contemporary Native resilience on the reservation, as seen through one extraordinary American family.

Crew Bios

Randy Vasquez grew up on the beaches of southern California and in the mountains of North Carolina. He has been an actor since 1983. His first documentary, made in 1996, was Concert of the South, which contrasted the original Zapatista movement during the Mexican Revolution with the current one in Chiapas. Testimony: The Maria Guardado Story (2001) was his first feature documentary that traces the journey of a Salvadoran political activist from being kidnapped and tortured by death squads in 1980 to her immigrating to the U.S. in 1983. It won best documentary at the 2002 New York Latino Film Festival. Randy is a UCLA graduate with a bachelor's degree in American Indian Studies.

Jonathan has produced, directed and shot numerous award-winning documentaries. Past projects include: The Youth & Gender Media Project, a series of short documentaries about gender non-conforming youth that have screened at festivals worldwide and won the Audience Award at Outfest; The Elevator Operator, a documentary about a Ukrainian immigrant who runs a manual elevator in Manhattan. It has screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, won Best Documentary at the Urban TV film festival in Madrid and had its broadcast premiere on PBS and Ukrainian TV; the award-winning Spit It Out, which was broadcast on PBS in 2007; and A Day's Work, A Day's Pay, which won the prestigious Harry Chapin award for films about hunger and poverty and was broadcast on PBS and in Europe in 2002.

Additional Information 
Badger Creek: 1/30
Type of Feed: Station Feed
NOLA Code: BADG 00H1
Feed Date/Time: Start: Saturday, May 6, 2017 - 10:30 ET

Credits
This program is produced by Skurnik Productions & High Valley Productions for a presentation of Vision Maker Media, with major funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Funding:
Funding for Badger Creek was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Rhea Ashmore and the Montana Film Office

Film Pages
Official Website:
https://www.badgercreek.org/

Vision Maker Media:
http://www.visionmakermedia.org/films/badger-creek


About Vision Maker Media

Vision Maker Media is celebrating 40 years as your premier source for quality American Indian and Alaska Native educational and home videos. All aspects of our programs encourage the involvement of young people to learn more about careers in the media--to be the next generation of storytellers. Vision Maker Media envisions a world changed and healed by understanding Native stories and the public conversations they generate. 

With funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Vision Maker Media's Public Media Content Fund awards support to projects with a Native American theme and significant Native involvement that ultimately benefits the entire public media community. Vision Maker Media, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) empowers and engages Native People to tell stories.  www.visionmakermedia.org

Contact: Susan Hartmann * (402) 472-8607,  shartmann@netad.unl.edu