About First People Stories
We make illustrated films of the old stories of the first peoples: animal stories, sky stories and teaching stories, each told calmly by one narrator and credited to the book it comes from.
Made together with collaborators
The films are made together with collaborators from the Lakota, Inuit, Tohono O'odham, Diné, Sámi, Finnish and Estonian peoples. Our collaborators advise us and contribute to the films.
How the films are made
Every film is illustrated, line by line, in a naturalist pen-and-wash style, with the people, dwellings, plants and animals of the right place and time. We do not use AI imagery, in the films or on this site. The stories themselves come from public-domain collections, and each story page names its source.
A nonprofit association
First People Stories is a nonprofit.
The films are free to watch. Support from members and donors pays for the next films, the research behind them and the work of our collaborators. Nobody takes a profit from the association.
Sharing with collaborators
We plan to set aside 25% of net income for a collaborator pool, shared with the people who help make the films. This is planned, pending our collaborators' agreement; we will only start it once they have agreed to how it works.
Open books
Every quarter we will publish a short public statement: what came in, what went out, and what went to the collaborator pool. The first statement will appear here after the first full quarter of memberships.
