Sydney Freeland (born October 10, 1980) is a Navajo filmmaker. She wrote and directed the short film ''Hoverboard'' (2012) and the film ''

Drunktown's Finest ''Drunktown's Finest'' is an American drama film directed by Sydney Freeland. The film had its world premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2014. The film later screened at the Sundance London Film Festival on April 25, 2014. ...

'' (2014), which garnered numerous acclaims after premiering at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

. Her second film, ''

Deidra and Laney Rob a Train ''Deidra & Laney Rob a Train'' is an American comedy film, comedy drama film, drama crime film, crime film directed by Sydney Freeland, from a screenplay by Shelby Farrell. It stars Ashleigh Murray, Rachel Crow, Tim Blake Nelson, David Sullivan (a ...

'', debuted at Sundance and was released on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

in 2017.

Early life

Freeland was born in

Gallup, New Mexico Zuni: ''Kalabwaki'' , settlement_type = City , nickname = "Indian Capital of the World" , motto = , image_skyline = Gallup, New Mexico.jpg , imagesize = 250px , image_caption ...

, United States in 1980 to a

Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...

father and a Scottish mother, and she was raised on a Navajo reservation. Freeland attended

Academy of Art University The Academy of Art University (AAU or ART U), formerly Academy of Art College and Richard Stephens Academy of Art, is a private for-profit art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded as the Academy of Advertising Art by Richard S. S ...

in San Francisco. She is a 2004 Fulbright scholar, focusing her scholarship on a field study of indigenous peoples in Ecuador. She has a Master of Fine Arts in film, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in computer animation. Freeland is a 2007 Disney Scholarship recipient and a 2008 Disney Fellowship semifinalist. Freeland is also a 2009 Sundance Institute Native Lab fellow.

Career

Prior to making her first feature-length film, ''Drunktown's Finest'', Freeland previously worked as a production assistant, as a writer and as a camera intern. Freeland worked for a number of different media companies, including The Food Network, Walt Disney, Comedy Central, and National Geographic. Freeland directed a six-minute short, ''Hoverboard'', utilizing Kickstarter to help fund the short. The film was inspired by ''

Back to the Future Part II ''Back to the Future Part II'' is a 1989 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay by Bob Gale and a story by both. It is the sequel to the 1985 film ''Back to the Future'' and the second installment in the ' ...

''. ''Drunktown's Finest'' is her second venture into filmmaking. The 95-minute-long film is a coming-of-age story about the complex issues surrounding identity and the struggles faced by Native American people. The film's name is inspired by a controversial 20/20 segment on ABC News, which branded the town of Gallup, New Mexico as "Drunk Town, USA", after the increase of instances of alcoholism on the border of the Navajo Nation. Freeland wrote and directed ''Drunktown's Finest'' as a way to combat negative stereotypes of her home community. Freeland, who is herself a

transgender woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and som ...

, also directed a digital series about queer and trans women called '' Her Story''. The series was nominated for the newly created

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

category of Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama. In 2014 Freeland was named a

United States Artists United States Artists (USA) is a national arts funding organization based in Chicago. USA is dedicated to supporting living artists and cultural practitioners across the United States by granting unrestricted awards. Mission The organization' ...

(USA) Fellow. On March 19, 2022, Freeland joined as a director for the upcoming superhero streaming series ''

Echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the list ...

'' for

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...

. In 2022, she was included in the Fast Company Queer 50 list.

Filmography

* 2008: ''The Migration'' (Short) - director * 2012: ''Hoverboard'' (Short) - producer, writer, director * 2014: ''

'' - screenwriter, director * 2016: '' Her Story'' (Web Series) - director * 2017: '' Deidra & Laney Rob a Train'' - director * 2018–2019: ''

Grey's Anatomy ''Grey's Anatomy'' is an American medical drama television series that premiered on March 27, 2005, on ABC as a mid-season replacement. The series focuses on the lives of surgical interns, residents, and attendings as they develop into se ...

'' (TV series) - director (2 episodes) * 2018: ''

Heathers ''Heathers'' is a 1989 American black comedy film written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann, in both of their respective film debuts. The film stars Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, and ...

'' (TV series) - director (1 episode)From the ''Heathers'' series page on

HBO Nordic Home Box Office (HBO)—originally established on November 8, 1972, as a premium cable television network in the United States—has, since 1991, expanded into a family of international pay television channels presently owned by Warner Bros. Di ...

streaming service. * 2019: ''

Station 19 ''Station 19'' is an American action-drama television series created by Stacy McKee for ABC that premiered on March 22, 2018. It is the second spin-off of ''Grey's Anatomy'' (after ''Private Practice''). Set in Seattle, the series focuses on th ...

'' (TV series) - director (1 episode) * 2019: ''

Chambers Chambers may refer to: Places Canada: *Chambers Township, Ontario United States: *Chambers County, Alabama * Chambers, Arizona, an unincorporated community in Apache County * Chambers, Nebraska * Chambers, West Virginia * Chambers Township, Hol ...

'' (TV series) - director (1 episode) * 2019: ''

Tales of the City ''Tales of the City'' is a series of nine novels written by American author Armistead Maupin from 1978 to 2014, depicting the life of a group of friends in San Francisco, many of whom are LGBT. The stories from ''Tales'' were originally serial ...

'' (miniseries) - director (1 episode) * 2019: '' Fear the Walking Dead'' (TV series) - director (1 episode) * 2019: ''

Impulse Impulse or Impulsive may refer to: Science * Impulse (physics), in mechanics, the change of momentum of an object; the integral of a force with respect to time * Impulse noise (disambiguation) * Specific impulse, the change in momentum per uni ...

'' (TV series) - director (1 episode) * 2019: ''

Emergence In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors that emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole. Emergence ...

'' (TV series) - director (1 episode) * 2020: ''

Nancy Drew Nancy Drew is a Fictional character, fictional character appearing in several Mystery fiction, mystery book series, movies, and a TV show as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwriter, ghostwritten by a number of authors and published ...

'' (TV series) - director (2 episodes) * 2020: ''

P-Valley ''P-Valley'' is an American drama television series created by Katori Hall. The series is an adaptation of Hall's play ''Pussy Valley'', and follows several people who work at a strip club in the Mississippi Delta. It stars Brandee Evans, Nicco A ...

'' (TV series) - director (1 episode) * 2020: '' The Wilds'' (TV series) - director (1 episode) * 2021: ''

Rutherford Falls ''Rutherford Falls'' is an American sitcom television series that premiered on the streaming service Peacock on April 22, 2021. It was created by Ed Helms, Michael Schur, and Sierra Teller Ornelas. In July 2021, the series was renewed for a secon ...

'' (TV series) - director (4 episodes) * 2021: ''

Reservation Dogs ''Reservation Dogs'' is an Indigenous American teen comedy drama television series created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi for FX Productions. It is the first series to feature all Indigenous writers and directors, along with an almost ent ...

'' (TV series) - director (2 episodes) * 2022: '' Star Trek: Strange New Worlds'' (TV series) - director (1 episode) * 2023: ''

'' (TV series) - director

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Freeland, Sydney American women film directors American women screenwriters American television directors American LGBT film directors American LGBT screenwriters American transgender writers Academy of Art University alumni Transgender women writers Transgender screenwriters Navajo people LGBT people from New Mexico LGBT Native Americans Living people 1980 births People from Gallup, New Mexico Film directors from New Mexico Screenwriters from New Mexico Native American screenwriters 21st-century American screenwriters 21st-century American women writers American women television directors 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century Native Americans 20th-century Native American women 21st-century Native American women Native American women writers

Early life

Career

Filmography

Awards and nominations

See also

References

External links