Turtle Island Productions® was formed in 1995 by filmmaker and Director of Photography James M. Fortier. TIP is located in the San Francisco Bay Area. TIP focuses on two distinct areas of production; high-end corporate/industrial films and videos as well as film and video projects dealing with American Indian and Canadian First Nation issues and themes. The former includes cable and broadcast specials and news events, business and corporate teleconferences, product roll-out tapes, sales and training videos, marketing and promotional videos; and also includes video production for the web, DVD, CD ROMs, video games. The latter area of production includes dramatic, educational, promotional and documentary films and videos with specific American Indian and Canadian First Nation themes and issues.
James Fortier is an award winning Writer/Producer/Director working primarily in video, television and web site production. Jim was the Associate Producer and Writer for the 5 -Time Emmy Award winning "Waasa-inaabidaa: We Look In All Directions," a six-hour national PBS documentary series focusing on the history of the Ojibway people of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The series also received the Best Documentary Feature Award at the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco. He is also the producer for the companion web site at www.ojibwe.org. Jim, who is Métis-Ojibway, also recently directed, co-wrote, and was the DP for the documentary "Alcatraz Is Not An Island," which received the Best Documentary Feature Award at the 1999 American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco, and was selected by the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in 2001. He was the Co-Producer and Co-Director of the Alcatraz Occupation 30th Anniversary Celebration/Concert and Cultural Event on Alcatraz in 1999. Jim also recently wrote, produced, and directed "Voices For the Land," a PBS documentary for WDSE, Duluth, MN focusing on environmental issues in Minnesota. In 1995 Jim was the Director of Photography for the dramatic short video "Looks Into the Night," starring Tantoo Cardinal, which was awarded Best Dramatic Short Video at the 1996 American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco. Jim was also the Director of Photography for "We Hold the Rock," a short video which is part of the new permanent exhibit on Alcatraz Island commemorating the 1969 Indian retaking and occupation of the island. In 1998, Jim worked with Cree filmmaker Lorretta Todd on her award winning CBC documentary on the life of Chief Dan George. Jim is currently the Director and DP for a 90-minute feature documentary for Native American Public Telecommunications/PBS to air nationally on PBS.
Since 1987 Jim has provided his skills for hundreds of productions for broadcast, cable, corporate, industrial, and educational clients including TBS, CBS, NBC, ABC, ESPN, CBC, PBS, Knowledge TV, E-CHANNEL, Sci Fi Channel, History Channel, Apple TV, Hewlett-Packard TV, Intel, Electronic Arts, Cisco, Visa, and many more. Recently, Jim was the DP for "Stay Tuned," a documentary series pilot with host Peter Coyote. Jim was also recently the DP for the documentary series "In America," produced for the International Channel, and the DP for the PBS series "Great Museums," shot in HDTV, as well as for a documentary on the history of the Presidio in San Francisco. Jim is also currently the Co-Producer and Director of Photography for the documentary "American Lynching: Strange and Bitter Fruit."
In addition, Jim produced the companion website (www.ojibwe.org) for "Waasa Inaabidaa: We Look In All Directions," a 6 hour PBS documentary series. Jim also taught video production workshops for Native American high school students at the 1997 Native Americas International Film Expo in Santa Fe, NM. He has also been active working behind the scenes for the American Indian Film Institute in San Francisco, CA. He has appeared as a guest speaker at SFSU, USF, ASU, Brown University, Syracuse University, University of Minnesota, KQED Television, and the Banff Television Conference discussing aboriginal filmmaking, and his articles and interviews have appeared in several Bay Area and national publications. Jim is a two-time recipient of PBS's Emerging Filmmaker Fellowships, including the prestigious PBS Producers Academy Workshop at WGBH in Boston.
On a personal note, Jim was born in Nipigon, Ontario, Canada.
He has strong ties to his Métis and Ojibway relatives in Thunder
Bay, and Nipigon, Ontario, and on the Pic River Ojibway First Nation Reserve.
He was raised near Chicago and moved to California in 1983 to finish film
school at San Francisco State University where he completed course work
for a BA in Broadcast Communications Arts and has operated his own production
company since1987.
