Grantee: Brooke Swaney
Native Citizenship: Blackfeet/Salish
Location: Polson, Mont.
Award: 2014 NACF Artist Fellowship
Discipline: Film
Web Site: http://okbreatheauralee.com/
Brooke Swaney has generated much enthusiasm in the indie film circuit for her film “Breathe Auralee” (2012).
The short film shares the story of a young adopted woman of Native decent who has decided she wants to have a baby, though she’s not sure just yet, with whom. Following her journey from coming of age to the years after finishing college, the film depicts how growing up away from one’s community makes asserting and defining one’s identity complicated.
An NACF Artist Fellowship in Film will support Swaney’s next film, a documentary about the actress who played Auralee in the film and is a Native adoptee seeking her birthparents.
Swaney earned an MFA from NYU, participated in the Sundance Institute’s Native Film Program and plans to complete a feature length version of “Breathe Auralee” in the coming years.
