Phil Lucas (1942 – February 4, 2007) was an American filmmaker of mostly Native American themes. He was an actor, writer, producer, director and editor for more than 100 films/documentaries or television programs starting as early as 1979 when he wrote/co-produced and co-directed ''Images of Indians'' for PBS - a five-part series exploring the problem of Indian stereotypes as portrayed and perpetuated by

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

Westerns The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

Early life

Born in 1942 in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

, United States to the

Choctaw The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...

Native American Nation, in his early twenties Lucas was a musician in New York but giving up alcohol drove him to leave for

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

where he took up photography and worked for advertising agencies. In the early- to mid-1960s Lucas became a member of the

Baháʼí Faith The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu'lláh in the 19th century, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the ...

and contributed songs such as ''Mount Your Steeds, O Heroes of God!'' and ''World Citizen'', among other songs on an LP record re-released as a CD ''Fire & Snow''. He also spoke at least one Baháʼí Conference (see links below). Lucas returned to American West and took up filmmaking after surviving the 1972 earthquake in

Managua ) , settlement_type = Capital city , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Nicar ...

, Nicaragua.

Awards

Acclaimed as the "foremost (Native American) film documentarian" by Hanay Geiogamah, a professor of theater and American Indian studies at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californ ...

, Lucas won some 18 awards or nominations from 1980 to 2003. * 1994 ''

The Native Americans ''The Native Americans'' is a three-part American television documentary miniseries that premiered on TBS on October 10, 1994. The remaining two episodes aired on October 11 and 13, 1994. Directed by John Borden, Phil Lucas and George Burdeau, ...

'',

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 ...

, Television Series * 1999 '' Allan Houser/Haozous: The Lifetime Works of an American Master'' ** Best Documentary, Santa Fe Film Festival, Santa Fe, NM. ** Taos Mountain Award, Taos Talking Pictures Film Festival, Taos, NM. ** Official Selection, Native Forum,

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 46,6 ...

. * 2002 ''Restoring the Sacred Circle'' won the Best Public Service Award at American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco. As recently as 2003 Lucas won the CINE Eagle Award for ''Vis à Vis: Native Tongues''.

Films/television

Lucas worked on popular media as well as covering issues inside the Native American community. In 1979 he helped complete a set of documentaries covering

Portrayal of Native Americans in film The portrayal of Native Americans in television and films concerns Indigenous roles in cinema, particularly their depiction in Hollywood productions. Especially in the Western genre, Native American stock characters can reflect contemporary an ...

called "Images of Indians" with Robert Hagoplan. "Images of Indians" is a five-part series on the Indian stereotype portrayed in movies and questions the impact of Hollywood image on Indians' own self-image. In particular, Lucas and Hagoplan made the first of the series - "The Great Movie Massacre" - about the myth of the "savage Indian" vs

Buffalo Bill William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), known as "Buffalo Bill", was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but he lived for several years ...

and similar stories. In 1987 he directed ''Honor of All'' about an Alkali Lake band of Indians in British Columbia who overcame decades of alcohol abuse which helped bring a national awareness of the problem of alcoholism among Indians. He used "interviews and dramatic reenactments from the 1986 two-tape documentary to create the 1992 film ''The Honour of All.'' "It began with their seven-year-old daughter telling them she didn't want to live with them anymore. Using interviews and dramatic reenactments, this 1986 two-tape documentary conveys the story of alcoholic Phyllis Chelsea and her husband Andy Chelsea, who stopped drinking and then led the Alkali Lake Indian Band on a years-long, but ultimately successful struggle out of alcoholism that had been devastating the community of the Shuswap Reserve in British Columbia." Lucas played characters and served as a technical advisor on cultural content in popular TV series ''

Northern Exposure ''Northern Exposure'' is an American Northern comedy-drama television series about the eccentric residents of a fictional small town in Alaska that ran on CBS from July 12, 1990, to July 26, 1995, with a total of 110 episodes. It received 57 ...

'' (1990–1991) and ''

MacGyver Angus "Mac" MacGyver is the title character and the protagonist in the TV series ''MacGyver''. He is played by Richard Dean Anderson in the 1985 original series. Lucas Till portrays a younger version of MacGyver in the 2016 reboot. In both p ...

'', as well as producing/writing/directing/editing many movies and documentaries. Lucas co-directed the 1993

American Indian Dance Theatre American Indian Dance Theatre is a professional performing arts company presenting the dances and songs of Native Americans in the United States and the First Nations of Canada. History The group was founded in 1987 with Hanay Geiogamah as direc ...

for PBS television series

Great Performances ''Great Performances'' is a television anthology series dedicated to the performing arts; the banner has been used to televise theatrical performances such as plays, musicals, opera, ballet, concerts, as well as occasional documentaries. It is p ...

/Dance in America. Also in 1993,

Pierce Brosnan Pierce Brendan Brosnan (; born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor and film producer. He is best known as the fifth actor to play secret agent James Bond in the Bond film series, starring in four films from 1995 to 2002 ('' GoldenEye'', '' Tomorro ...

starred in The Broken Chain for TV and Lucas played a Mohawk character in a story about Iroquois' in the midst of the Revolutionary War. Again in 1993 Lucas produced, directed and wrote ''Healing the Nation'' a documentary on efforts of Nuu Chan-NuIth Nation on

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

to break the cycle of sexual abuse in their community. In 2003 in ''Vis à Vis: Native Tongues'' Lucas brought together an

Australian Aboriginal Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait I ...

artist and an American Indian performance artist. Married for over 25 yrs to Nancy Gross of Bellevue who, with Phil, produced 4 children: Amy, Jason, Jessy, and Sara. Lucas has one son from a previous marriage: Josh Lucas.Nancy Chandler née Gross.

Later life

Lucas eventually moved to

Issaquah, Washington Issaquah ( ) is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 40,051 at the 2020 census. Located in a valley and bisected by Interstate 90, the city is bordered by the Sammamish Plateau to the north and the " Issaquah Al ...

, and taught film at Bellevue Community College in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

for the last eight years of his life. He began an American Indian Film Festival there in 2003. He died in Bellevue, Washington, and is survived by his fourth wife, Mary Lou, and five children.

References

External links