Exerpt from Rapid City Weekly News, 10/18/07

“For “Reservation Sensation” J.R. Redwater, the chance to bring The Pow Wow Comedy Jam’s tour to the Prairie Wind Casino, as a headlining act, was the dream of a lifetime. Redwater was humbled by the experience, particularly at the end of the show when he and the Jam’s other acts, Jim Ruel, Marc Yaffee, and Vaughn Eaglebear were presented with star quilts. Coming back to “The Rez” was not just a chance to say “I made it,” but a chance to inspire others…

It’s that type of opportunity that producer Joan Quinn Eastman hopes to finance with a production fund. And that’s the reason Eastman, (whose husband Daniel is distantly related of Charles Eastman, central figure in HBO’s “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”) was at The Black Hills Pow Wow/He Sapa Wacipi Na Oskate trying to build up a production fund to assist Native American projects with their dreams — everything from short films, documentaries, movies and reality shows to the new media of the internet, podcasting, and the still-in-the works Native American cable channel.

Eastman and Moody Street Productions director Ted Reskikoff, was intrigued by the do-it-yourself guerrilla broadcasts of Roland Piyu “Storm” Harris’ local startup Trybal (online) Magazine’s since the first night the event, which had already been shot with a pawn shop digital video camera, was edited and sent out on YouTube. Also getting a raised eyebrow from Eastman was the fact that when Linn Productions’ Pine Ridge set “Imprint” was shown at Austin’s South By Southwest festival, it wound up perhaps unintentionally being lumped in with a documentary on traditional Navajo rug weaving.

Eastman and Resnikoff are working in South Dakota with Pulitzer prize-nominated author Mark St. Pierre, of the Pine Ridge reservation, who was frustrated (like the Linns) that the state has no full time soundstage. “It’s just a shame that more films can’t be produced here,” noted St. Pierre, who in his role as a technical advisor to the film tried to get the Emmy-winning “Wounded Knee” shot in South Dakota, instead of Alberta, Canada…”