Ravalli Republic

Ordinarily, news of a couple of Montana-made films’ acceptance to a Montana film festival might not be so newsworthy. But when the films were created by students of two different Indian reservations under the auspices of an award-winning media arts program, and when the festival is the largest of its kind in the American West […]

They’re 140 miles apart and from two different areas of the creative spectrum, but Browning High School’s poetry club and the Art for Survival group at Helena’s Holter Museum of Art have a lot in common. Both groups serve high school students by helping them find creative expression. Both groups hosted the MAPS Media Institute

If a 16th birthday can be considered the threshold between adolescence and adulthood, between the formative years and emerging maturity, then the MAPS Media Institute, as it prepares for its 16th year of operation, is coming of age in a big way. The mission of MAPS is to empower, inspire and prepare Montana’s next generation

Two extraordinary films created by students in Montana’s reservation communities have been selected for presentation at the prestigious 2019 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. Both productions were made possible by the professional filmmakers and outreach efforts of the MAPS Media Institute in Hamilton. On the Blackfeet Indian Reservation – Rising Voices, at Browning High School

Students from the MAPS Media Institute won two awards from The 42nd Annual Fresh Films NorthWest (FFNW) film competition for its films “Aisitsimsta” and “Iris”. “Aisitsimsta”, one of 15 winners from over 130 entries, is a film produced by Browning High School and Middle School students during a week–long MAPS Montana GEAR Up 2018 summer