NativeImages Production Group — Southern California

Concert night —

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Cal Arts

"Wild Beast Concert Series Herb Alpert School of Music"

Official Selection —

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"Red Nation International Film Festival"

Agua Caliente's

"The Festival of Native Film and Culture"

Summerhawk Award —

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 "Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema"

We Are Birds — A California Indian Story

A feature documentary on the revitalization of Bird Singing, the songs that carry the history of California’s tribal nations.

The film was not made by arriving with a crew and a shot list. An elder invited me to pick up a rattle and sing. The community decided what could be filmed, when, and what could be shared. "This collaborative filter shaped what we see on screen."

Albert Chacon is a Native filmmaker, photographer and cultural educator with deep roots in Southern California. He is of Cupeño, Cahuilla and Apache descent, with family origins at Kupa — Warner Springs — the Cupeño homeland from which the people were forcibly removed in 1903.

For nearly thirty years he has documented Native California through film, photography and fieldwork. He is the director and producer of We Are Birds — A California Indian Story, a feature documentary on the power of traditional Bird Singing and the living cultural legacy of California's Indigenous peoples. The film received the Summerhawk Award at the Red Nation International Film Festival, was an official selection at the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema, and opened the Wild Beast Concert Series at the Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts.

His work has since extended into cultural consulting for tribal communities, historic preservation, and curriculum development in partnership with public colleges and educators. He served as Native American Advisor on the USC School of Cinematic Arts production Off Track.

The method has not changed across any of it. He does not arrive, record and leave. The relationship comes before the camera, often by years. Permission is ongoing rather than signed once, and what gets shared is decided by the people who gave it — some material stays unpublished because that is what was agreed. The result is slower and smaller in output than conventional documentary practice, and considerably more accurate.

The commitment has been constant: to uplift Native voices, traditions and tribal knowledge, carried in their own words.

"Our stories don’t

begin at contact"

Special           Screening

Film Festivals

Award-Winning

Filmmaking