Tony Estrada - Director/Producer

Tony Estrada (Navajo) is a writer/director/producer who initially started out in the film industry as an assistant director in Los Angeles, on television & feature film productions. He now directs or produces documentaries, broadcast television programs, & music videos, in HD, video, and/or film formats through his Albuquerque-based documentary company, Wild Horse Films. He also specializes in production management, as a line producer or UPM on other companies' feature films.

Some notable documentaries Tony's worked on include: Lowel Pierce's The Elders Speak; a doc on professional wrestlers, Beyond the Mat; and the Turtle Island Media PBS documentary, Mining in the West. Tony was the researcher & production manager for Riche-Heape Films' award-winning documentary The Trail of Tears, featuring Wes Studi and James Earl Jones.

He also produced Roughout Productions' Spirit of the Western Horse, as well as Joshua Frenk's documentary - a multi-camera shoot, shot live-to-tape, using four Panasonic PDX-900's - on a historic gathering of spiritual leaders representing 40 religions and world faiths, entitled Many Paths, One Source.

Besides feature films and documentaries, Tony's television production experience includes:

• Field Camera Operator & Studio Camera Operator, KWGN-TV Channel 2 News, Denver
• Field Camera Operator, "Real Stories of the Highway Patrol"
• Field Camera Operator, CNN
• Producer, "Devuelveme La Vida (Give Me Back My Life)", television pilot, aired on Telemundo
• Director/Producer, "Quality Time - The Ultimate Family Adventure Show", television pilot for family programming,
• Director/Producer, "Misty Dawn: Episode 1", television pilot, Cable Channel 27, Dallas

Other recent career highlights include:

• Festival Director for Santa Fe's Global Green Indigenous Film Festival (April 2008)
• Director/Producer, Power Struggles: The Proposed Desert Rock Power Plant, a 15-minute segment broadcast on PBS affiliate KNME's "New Mexico in Focus" series (2009)
• Supervising Producer/Mentor for "Creative Spirit New Mexico" - a Native filmmakers' crash-course film intensive (Edgar's Journey, 2008 and Indios Primeros, 2009)
• Adjunct Professor, Documentary Filmmaking, at Institute of American Indian Arts (2010)

Presently, Tony is producing Second Circle, a feature-length film with Native cast & crew, using Smoke Signals as his business model. This gritty contemporary, coming-of-age action/drama about a young Pima man who must make life choices while living on his reservation will be filmed 2011, in Gila River Indian Community, south of Phoenix, Arizona. Filming wildlife on location, in Colorado

Tony Estrada's reputable business savvy and knowledge of film scheduling & budgeting, as well as his calm supervision on set, have put him in demand for TV documentaries, indie films, & highprofile cultural projects. His strength is bringing in your film production on schedule and on budget, yet providing a fun, creative environment for actors and crew.

Tony believes media - its content, form, & expression - is a force & influence on all who consume it; and especially, in indigenous communities has both positive & negative impacts. But media especially originated from indigenous communities, can feed the mind and strengthen the spirit. Therefore, he is committed to creating media content which transcend cultural boundaries, and will help the viewers' minds grow and touch their spirit.