American Indian Heritage 2001 Local Heroes: Michael Smith
Executive Director, American Indian Film Institute
Michael Smith founded the American Indian Film Festival in 1975 and the American Indian Film Institute in 1979, to foster understanding of culture, traditions and issues of contemporary American Indians. Today, AIFI is the major American Indian media and cultural arts presenter in Northern California.
The goals of AIFI are inherently educational: to encourage Native and non-Native filmmakers to bring to broader media culture the Native voices, viewpoints and stories that have been historically excluded from mainstream media; to develop Indian and non-Indian audiences for this work, and to advocate tirelessly for authentic representations of Indians in the media.
Mr. Smith has served as lead development person, artistic director, public relations, graphics/media art director and administrative director of the organization. He is an enrolled member of the Sioux Tribes of Fort Peck Agency, Montana. He is also Executive Editor for ICE; Indian Cinema Entertainment. He was educated at the University of Washington in American History and is an expert in the history of Indian Cinema, graphic arts and printing.
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