Finding Manoomin: an Emmy-winning documentary with MPR News and TPT
Days in a canoe on Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe land, following a reporter home to the wild rice.
I remember sitting in a canoe behind MPR News reporter Leah Lemm, in wild rice country, trying to hold a shot steady while the stalks slapped the lens. That afternoon became the heart of Finding Manoomin, a documentary that went on to win an Upper Midwest Regional Emmy and aired on MPR News and Twin Cities PBS.
Leah directed. She is the senior editor of MPR's Native News Initiative, and this was her story in the fullest sense: her family, her community, her relative, the rice. I shot and edited. Lindsey Seavert produced and wrote. Leah also made a companion radio documentary, which is worth your time.
We spent days filming on Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe land and were welcomed with a warmth that still gets to me. The gear was small on purpose: a Canon C70 and R5 C, a GoPro in an underwater housing, another GoPro taped to a painter's pole for the low-over-the-water shots, and a DJI Mini 4 Pro for the aerials that show just how much rice there is when the season is good.
Lindsey put it better than I can: it was a privilege to work alongside Leah and her family, and the film is better for every hour they gave us. This is the kind of project that runs through Tiny Window Pictures, with me behind the camera and in the edit.
