February 2009
 Andrew
Okpeaha MacLean (Inupiat) is a director and playwright
from Barrow, Alaska. MacLean's short work Sikumi/On the Ice,
the first film to be written entirely in the Iñupiaq language,
was short-listed for the 2009 Academy Awards. It premiered at
the 2008 Sundance Film Festival where it won a Special Jury Prize
in Short Filmmaking and has screened at over 40 festivals around
the world. MacLean was named a United States Artists Rasmuson
Fellow in Media for 2008 and was featured in Filmmaker Magazine
as one of 2008's "25 New Faces of Independent Film."
His other short films include Natchiliagniaqtuguk Aapagalu/Seal
Hunting with Dad, which premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film
Festival, and was named one of the ten best short films at the
festival by IndieWire.
MacLean also writes and directs plays. He is the co-founder of
the Inupiat Theatre in Barrow, and he co-founded and served as
the artistic director of Stickfigure Productions, a theater company
in Seattle. He received his BA in Theater from the University
of Washington. MacLean received his MFA in film production from
New York University, where he won numerous competitive awards,
including the Martin E. Segal Prize for Film, the King Award for
Screenwriting, the Wasserman Award for Directing and the Clive
Davis Award for Excellence in Music in Film. MacLean lives in
New York City.
"My philosophy of working in independent film is to tell
compelling stories about interesting and real people. My Iñupiaq
culture is a part of the films I make because it is a part of
who I am."
Screened by NMAI
Image credit: Andrew
Okpeaha MacLean - courtesy of the filmmaker
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