GRANTEE: Maya Rose Dittloff
NATIVE HERITAGE: Blackfeet and Mandan/Hidatsa
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
AWARD: 2021 LIFT – Early Career Support for Native Artists
DISCIPLINE: Film/Video
WEBSITE: mayarosedittloff.com
ABOUT
Maya Rose Dittloff (Ukkayǔ”kwīyinnimǎakii) is a writer and director from the mountains of Montana. She is a UCLA film school alum, a former fellow for the LA Skins Fest Feature Writing Lab, and currently a TV staff writer. Dittloff is dedicated to increasing authentic Indigenous representation by bringing the truth and beauty of her Indigenous cultures to both film and television through her work. She has been involved nationwide in advocating for Indigenous issues while serving as an Ambassador to the American Indian College Fund as well as Jr. Board Member for the Racial Justice and Indigenous Rights Committee for Young Entertainment Activists (YEA).
Since graduating from college, Dittloff has pursued an activism and entertainment career simultaneously. In 2019, she was honored by the Sovereign Bodies Institute with their Emerging Leader award, and has gone on to work with tribal communities on television and media projects. She has been deeply invested in sculpting pathways and protocols for engaging in projects with Native communities that are ethical and advance narrative change. Along those lines, in her role as Jr. Board Member at YEA, she has worked to create awareness and resources that move the industry towards inclusion and substantive social change.
PROJECT
For her LIFT project, Dittloff will write, direct, and produce a short narrative film, Dogwood, centering on the strength of Native women and how families and communities find healing in traditional medicines when one of their own has experienced domestic violence. She hopes to spark a conversation around how we can protect society’s most vulnerable populations by hosting panel discussions, viewings and Q&A’s with experts in order to begin a dialogue on how we can best protect Native women and destroy domestic violence.
Native women have stood up to genocide, assimilation, and have overcome abuse at the hand of strangers, police, and even their own partners. But who protects Native women?
—Maya Rose Dittloff (Blackfeet and Mandan/Hidatsa)
