Ben-Alex Dupris

Ben-Alex Dupris is Mnicoujou Lakota, and an enrolled member of the Colville Confederated Tribes in Washington State. Dupris creates work that pushes the boundaries of Indigeneity beyond traditional pastoralism, and into the grey areas of 21st Century America.

His directorial debut film “Sweetheart Dancers’’ won the Grand Jury Award for best short film at OUTFEST L.A. 2019, an Academy Award qualifying LGBTQIA+ film festival. He also directed “Bunky Echo-Hawk: The Resistance,” for American Masters PBS which was nominated for a NAACP Image Award, and had a Honorable Mention for the 2021 Webby Awards. Dupris also produced “Paulette” for veteran film producer Heather Rae for Sundance Institute and The Guardian Films. His first short animation, “Sister Wolves," recently won Achievement in Animation at L.A. SkinsFest 2020. He is currently completing a film commission for Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries exhibit called “Futures,” which will debut in fall 2021 and is a collaboration with the Alliance of Arts and Culture, LL Cool J, and Kevin Bright.

He is a former Sundance Institute Rauschenberg Producer’s Fellow, Davis Guggenheim’s Concordia Studio Artist-In-Residence Alumni, Firelight Media Impact Producer’s Fellow, and an inaugural Redford Center grantee recipient.