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February 2006
 Klee
Benally (Navajo) formed Indigenous Action Media to
offer training and production opportunities to Native youth interested
in addressing social and economic justice issues through documentary
film and video. He has directed works focusing on Native community
concerns, such as The Snowbowl Effect, a documentary which
makes the case against the expansion of the Arizona Snowbowl ski
resort on the San Francisco Peaks. In 2004 and 2005, Benally was
the coordinator of the Southwest Native American Film and Video
Festival at the Museum of Northern Arizona. With his sister and
brothers, he performs in the message-driven band Blackfire, which
was chosen by Nora Guthrie to set to music a selection of unpublished
lyrics written by her father Woody Guthrie. Blackfire has toured
extensively nationally and internationally; the album One Nation
Under, featuring guest vocals by Joey Ramone, was honored
as the 2003 Best Pop/Rock Album by the Native American Music Awards.
Since childhood Benally has performed with the Jones Benally Family,
a dance troupe led by his father, a singer. Benally was born in
Black Mesa, Arizona, and lives in Flagstaff.
Screened by NMAI
For More Information
Image credits: Klee
Benally - photograph by Tim Warner
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