About
Tracy Rector is a mixed race Choctaw/Seminole filmmaker, curator, community organizer, co-founder of Longhouse Media and a 2016 Stranger Genius. She has made over 400 short films, and is currently in production of her fifth feature documentary. As co-producer of the award-winning film Teachings of the Tree People, producer of March Point, co-director of Clearwater, and director of Ch'aak' S'aagi; Rector has developed an awareness and sensitivity to the power of media and film as a modern storytelling tool. Her work has been featured on Independent Lens, Cannes Film Festival, ImagineNative, National Geographic, Toronto International Film Festival, Folklife Festival, the Seattle Art Museum and in the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian.
After years of galvanizing community and working in a directorial role, Rector has begun to transfer her method of storytelling to gallery exhibitions including YOU ARE ON INDIGENOUS LAND at Core Gallery and Ciné Alter'natif in France, WOMEN ON THE BRINK at Vermillion Gallery, and BLOODLINES at Bridge Productions. As a Native Education specialist, Rector has facilitated work with over 3,000 youth, worked as a consultant with the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), served as a Native Naturalist for the Olympic Sculpture Park, and is involved with SAM’s newly expanded Native American wing.
Tracy has received the National Association for Media Literacy award for outstanding contributions made in the field of media education, is a current Firelight Media Lab Fellow, WGBH Producer Fellow, Sundance Institute Lab Fellow, Tribeca All Access Grantee and is the recipient of the Horace Mann Award for her work in utilizing media for social justice. Raised in Seattle and Albuquerque, Tracy currently lives in Seattle and sits as a City of Seattle Arts Commissioner.