Baling Baling

Lawrence Johnson has been making films and videos professionally since 1983. His work in history and culture has been distinguished through many awards, including two from the American Association of State and Local History (Remembering Uniontown, 1985 and Steam Whistle Logging, 1987). His programs for the exhibition Sacred Encounters: Father DeSmet and the Indians of the Rocky Mountain West received the Golden Muse Award, the American Association of Museum’s recognition for the best Audio/Visual program in 1995. His documentary Hand Game (2000) was funded in part by the National Endowment of the Arts, Folk Arts; it opened the American Indian Film Festival, and played the Smithsonian's Native American Film and Video Festival and the Montreal Native film Festival in June, 2001. His film three possible scenes won best dramatic short at the 2004 River Run International Film Festival in Salem, North Carolina, and Honorable Mention in the experimental category of the Kansas City Jubilee. Johnson is Story Editor for the acclaimed radio series Wisdom of the Elders, currently producing its fourth season. His personal feature-length documentary, called Stuff, received the Oregon Media Arts Fellowship in 2008, previewed at the Northwest Film and Video Festival and won a special jury prize at the 2011 Florida Film Festival and Best Documentary at the Talking Pictures Festival. In 2012, Johnson received the prestigious Fellowship Award in Media Arts from the Regional Arts and Culture Council, honoring artists in the Portland metropolitan area who are the strongest representatives of the range and diversity of art in the Northwest. His recent work on a series of videos Climate and Native Wisdom has won two Humanitarian Awards of Distinction from Indiefest.