REGINA SIMONS

“Filmmakers have the power to heal the past by telling their stories.” Haile Gerima

Stories hold transformative power. The diverse experiences of our collective journeys deserve to be seen, heard, and understood. My filmmaking is rooted in the mission to write, produce, and direct films that amplify voices often overlooked. Shedding light on narratives that challenge, inspire, and heal.

As an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, Diné on my mother’s side and, Nakoda, Dakota on my father’s side, my cultural identity is woven into the fabric of the stories I tell. Growing up as a performer from age five, I witnessed firsthand the persistent absence of authentic Indigenous representation in film. The lack of roles that reflected our richness and complexity compelled me to step behind the camera, where I continue refining my craft.

Too often, Indigenous stories have been told through a non-Native lens. This outsider perspective has shaped narratives that are incomplete at best and harmful at worst. I aim to disrupt this pattern by centering Native voices and lived experiences. Reclaiming our stories on our own terms.

My short film, Pretendian, explores the appropriation of Native American identity through a fictional lens inspired by real events. It challenges audiences to confront the harm caused by false claims to Native heritage and the erasure of authentic Indigenous voices. In contrast, Grey is a hybrid experimental film that turns inward. Tracing memory, lineage, and the embodied trauma of a woman reckoning with the violence that shaped her bloodline. By pulling out a grey hair, Grey becomes a meditation on aging, identity, generational pain, and survival.

Together, these films speak in conversation. One external, the other internal. Pretendian exposes how identity can be stolen, while Grey asks what it means to inherit it. Both reflect my commitment to telling stories that confront painful truths, reclaim silenced voices, and challenge how we see ourselves and one another.

I see filmmaking as a bridge between worlds, past and present, memory and myth, identity and performance. Through my work, I hope to offer stories that empower the present and light a path toward a more inclusive future. Stories heal, especially the ones we dare to tell.