Andrew Okpeaha MacLean

Born and raised in Barrow, Alaska and tired of Eskimos being portrayed as the butt of jokes, director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean has dedicated himself to depicting the true lifestyles of the Iñupiaq Eskimos who inhabit his native state. Before ever considering a career in filmmaking, MacLean earned a theater degree from the University of Washington, moved back home, and applied his education to forming an Alaskan theater company who performed entirely in the Iñupiaq language. The small-scale success of his plays inspired him to reach out to more than just his fellow community members, and he saw film as the best means to share his unique culture with the world. MacLean worked his way through New York University's MFA film program before completing his first film, 2005's "Seal Hunting with Dad," which screened at Sundance as well as the Museum of Modern Art. His next film "The Snaring Madman" was recognized as the best short film at the 2006 American Indian Film Festival, while the 2007 Arctic Sumer Series of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian held a screening of his documentary "When the Season is Good: Artists of Arctic Alaska." But MacLean officially broke out with his short film (later adapted into a feature) "Sikumi (On the Ice)," about an Inuit man faced with a moral dilemma after witnessing a murder on the frozen Arctic. Shot by "Sin Nombre" director Cary Fukunaga, the film took home the Short Filmmaking Award from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.