Oglala Lakota/Diné film director and writer Razelle Benally holds a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts and is currently a 3rd year MFA candidate of Film Production at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She was a 2015 Sundance Institute NativeLab Short Film Production Fellow with her first short narrative I am Thy Weapon. In 2017 her two-hundred dollar budgeted thesis film Raven traveled the international film festival circuit and found local success winning several awards including best short narrative at: the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, Native Cinema Showcase, and the New Mexico Film Foundation.
In 2018 Benally directed a PSA promoting the Indigenous Vote featuring Mark Ruffalo, Tonia Jo Hall, and Shailene Woodley. Her latestshort narrative Ókiya was funded by Academy Award Winner Spike Lee and is currently in post-production for a December 2020 premiere. She is in development of two feature-length narratives: Winter in Black Mesa (pre-production 2022), and War Cries (pre-production 2023). She has received support from Sundance Institute’s 2018 Creative Producing Summit and is now being supported through the 2020 Sundance Institute Feature Film Program as part of the Screenwriters Intensive track. She is represented by Rain Management Group, a talent and creative firm out of Los Angeles, CA.