Ian Skorodin

Ian Skorodin graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and began his directing career with an award winning feature film, entitled TUSHKA, based on the murder of a Native American activist's family. After premiering at Sundance in 1998, TUSHKA went on to win Best Feature at the Arizona International Film Festival. In 2000, TUSHKA was distributed to DirecTV for domestic television distribution. Skorodin moved into television and is developing the series JEW IN CHOCTAW COUNTRY. Skorodin also directs an animation series CRAZY IND'N, a stop motion animation television series. CRAZY IND'N went on to screen in England, Finland, and New York. CRAZY IND'N was distributed to Aboriginal People's Television Network in Canada and DishNetwork in the United States. Skorodin's other work includes two live action film and television projects. WALKING ON TURTLE ISLAND is a privately financed series set in the 1880's starring Tantoo Cardinal and Saginaw Grant. It premiered at the 2009 Ashland International Film Festival and has screened in England, Australia and numerous other festivals. In addition, Skorodin is currently developing TEN LITTLE INDIANS, a feature length movie about Indians in prison. Skorodin directed The Homestead, a first hand account of the Choctaw survivors of the Trail of Tears and Ramona Band of Cahuilla, a historical documentary based on the Ramona Band of Cahuilla Indians. Both documentaries are distributed widely in educational institutions and tribal organizations. Skorodin has directed two commercials for Native owned DSL company Mescalero Apache Telecom Inc. These commercials were used to advertise on television, at business conferences and for training facilities. His commercial directing work also includes promotionals for Rock the Vote and Univision. Skorodin works extensively in the Native American community of Los Angeles. Skorodin operates a video production company, Barcid Productions, and it's non-profit sister company, the Barcid Foundation. The production company has worked closely with the Native American community of Los Angeles providing multimedia production for First Americans in the Arts, Native Voices at the Autry, and the Southern California Indian Center, Inc. The Barcid Foundation was created to offer more opportunities in the entertainment industry. The foundation formed a film festival, a youth film workshop program, and a scholarship fund. The film festival works closely with the networks and studios to offer more opportunities to Native Americans in entertainment. These opportunities include a sketch comedy showcase for Native American actors sponsored by FOX, a writers group for Native writers provided by the Writers Guild of America and a directors workshop sponsored by CBS. The youth workshop is an intensive week-long production program that teaches Native American youth to produce three to four short films. Skorodin has taught film workshops in Los Angeles, on reservations in Oklahoma, California, Arizona and two reserves in Canada. Skorodin is a 2009 NATPE (National Association of Television Program Executives) Fellow and attended the 2008 National Black Programming Consortium's New Media Institute Conference in Washington D.C. In 2002, Skorodin attended the PBS Producer's Conference as part of the Producer's Academy scholar's program. Skorodin won a grant from Native American Public Television and SE-TV in South Carolina to attend the INPUT Television Conference in Rotterdam Holland. Skorodin also attended the 2002 Sundance Producer's conference funded by a Sundance fellowship. Skorodin is the winner of the American Indian Film Institute's Horizon Award, First Americans in the Arts' Trustee Award, and KCET's Community Leadership Award.