About The Filmmakers

Robbie Leppzer is an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker who has directed over thirty television and public radio documentaries over the past forty years. His critically acclaimed feature-length and short documentaries, as well as commissioned television news magazine segments, about contemporary social issues, grassroots activism, and multicultural themes, have been broadcast by CNN International, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, HBO/Cinemax, PBS, CNN, Sundance Channel, HDNet, Black Entertainment Television, Link TV, Free Speech TV, National Public Radio, and Pacifica Radio.

His 1975 hour-long radio documentary, WOUNDED KNEE: ROOTS OF THE EARTH, which documented the emergence of the American Indian Movement, won the 1976 national first prize from National Public Radio’s Young People’s Radio Festival and was nationally broadcast by NPR. In 1990, Leppzer was invited by the organizers to chronicle the historic First Continental Conference of Indigenous Peoples held in Quito, Ecuador. His resulting film, COLUMBUS DIDN’T DISCOVER US is a moving testimony about the impact of the Columbus legacy on the lives of indigenous peoples from across the hemisphere. An updated digitally remastered HD version of the film was released in 2020 with a 6-minute opening montage of TV news reports depicting protests of taking down statues of Christopher Columbus across the U.S.

For more information about Turning Tide Films:

www.TurningTide.com

Jennifer Lee grew up without knowledge of her Native ancestry. She has spent her adult life as an independent researcher learning the true history and culture of the Northeast Woodlands Indigenous Peoples. She has been sharing what she learns at schools, historic sites, and community events for 28 years by holding classes in her eastern conical wigwam. Inspired by her study of her Northeast Woodlands Native American ancestors, Jennifer Lee has been a basketmaker for 40 years. She makes bark baskets, teaches bark basketry extensively, and attends as many powwows and educational events as she can. The bark roots and branches she works with are wild harvested by her family in the Northern Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts. She has received awards at the Mohegan Wigwam Festival, Saratoga Native American Festival, Kearsage Indian Museum, Deerfield Craft Show, and North Carolina Basketmakers Association. 

For more information:

https://barkbasketsbyjlee.com