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November 2005
 Filmmaker
Jeff Spitz is the faculty
coordinator of the Michael Rabiger Center for Documentary Film
at Columbia College Chicago. His documentary The Return of
Navajo Boy premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, has
been widely screened internationally, and was broadcast on the
PBS series Independent Lens. The film triggered a federal investigation
into uranium contamination on the Navajo Reservation and won honors
including the Programmer's Choice Award at the 2000 Planet-in-Focus
Environmental Film Festival in Toronto, Ontario. Spitz has directed
several other documentaries including the PBS special From
the Bottom Up (1991). He is a partner at the communications
firm Amdur Spitz and Associates (ASA), which develops cultural
and educational outreach programs and marketing campaigns. Spitz
received a BA from University of California Los Angeles and two
MAs from the University of Chicago.
"I entered the world of indigenous film suddenly without
any previous contact with Native Americans. I just tried to find
the people in an old film from the 1950s called Navajo Boy.
My search for them took me into Monument Valley and into an astonishing
Navajo family history involving Hollywood, uranium mining, and
a missing baby. The Cly family accepted me and made me feel like
I belonged—we had no idea where the documentary process was
going to lead us. I feel blessed in many ways, particularly because
I got to join in this family's struggle and help them reunite
with a long lost brother. But even now it is hard for us to figure
out what to do about the revelations of uranium contamination
and the appalling health hazards that we put on screen. The
Return of Navajo Boy has stunned people all over the world
and affected all of us involved in it. We want to share the film
with others in a positive way."
Screened by NMAI
Image credits: Jeff
Spitz - courtesy of the filmmaker
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