Adam Conte is from the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and is part Mohawk.  He wants people to know and believe that Native Amercans are beautiful, smart, very talented, thriving, relevant and resilient. Currently, most online content is negative (suicide, missing indigenous women, drugs, alcohol, Covid victims, income disparity). There isn’t enough focus on that which is good and demonstrates talent. There are athletes, entrepreneurs, scholars, attorneys, authors, visual artists, musicians, scientists, mathematicians, and college professors, all within the native community. Adam thinks it is important to raise awareness of the challenges, but know his artistic contributions are important. He want to emphasize that which is positive and show the Native people in a bright light.

Learners can expect a crash course in the development of content. First, what did content look like 10 years ago, 5 years ago and what does content look like now? Second, what do we want our end goal to be in our content? Do we want to raise awareness, or issue a call for action? Three, dive into various aspects to explore what can be done to create a feeling about an issue. Four, prepare three different soundtracks for the same footage. How does the feeling change based on each piece of music? How is the change reflected? Five, the process of filmmaking will explore editing, camera movements, settings, storyboarding, conceptualization and all components of pre-production. 

Adam’s classes are for learners in 8th grade and above.