Filmmaker Deidra Peaches rousing change through visual media                                                                                        By Paul Garcia, March 16, 2023                                                                                                                   

Stories hold power. Since time immemorial, stories have been how people have carried their history and endowed future generations with the knowledge necessary to thrive in the ever-changing world.

"A spiritual home": Filmmaker Deidra Peaches documents and spotlights Indigenous tribes around the Grand Canyon and Colorado River                                                                                                                                                                                  Paul Garcia, Arizona Daily Sun, November 3, 2022

The New World is an oxymoronic statement that seems acceptable to academics and historians alike. To those of us that are Indigenous to the American continents, it’s a phrase that is both belittling and reductive to the long history of the many people that called the “New World” home. 

Diné Filmmaker Deidra Peaches Premieres Voices of the Grand Canyon                                                                                   Lynn Trimble, Southwest Contemporary,  FEBRUARY 8, 2022

PHOENIX, AZ—Diné filmmaker Deidra Peaches is making work at the intersection of several of today’s most pressing issues: extraction, water, and climate change; whitewashing history; and the lack of representation in film and other creative industries.

'Voices of the Grand Canyon' is a tribute to a Flagstaff filmmaker's friend and her people                                                      Sofia Krusmark , Arizona Republic,  FEBRUARY 4, 2022    

It was nearly six years ago that 33-year-old filmmaker Deidra Peaches went on a journey that changed her life. As she walked deep into the Grand Canyon with her best friend and filmmaking partner, Jake Hoyungowa, the canyon walls invited her into a spiritual experience she still hasn’t forgotten, she says.

DEIDRA PEACHES, FILMMAKER PRODUCER: DAVID FENSTE, ARIZONA ILLUSTRATED, ARIZONA PUBLIC MEDIA, 2020

Deidra Peaches has been a filmmaker for 15 years. Her work has shown at film festivals around the world including the Sundance Film Festival. She has created documentaries, fiction films, and music videos. Deidra guides us through her filmmaking life in her own words and images

Native woman shares filmmaking journey BY CODY BEGAYE SUN CORRESPONDENT, FRIDAY, 29 MAY 2020 

The path of a filmmaker is one many people dream of taking, but it is a steep climb, one that requires dedication and attention to detail. It is a challenge that Deidra Peaches was willing to tack

Native Voices Lead into Second Century of Grand Canyon National Park                                                                                  GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, AZ   

A group of Native leaders is setting the tone for the next century of Grand Canyon National Park with a new collection of stories about their cultural ties to the Grand Canyon. “The Voices of Grand Canyon,” which features words, videos, and audio stories from Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Havasupai, and Hualapai tribal members, launches on February 26, 2020, the 101st anniversary of Grand Canyon National Park.

Paper Rocket Productions: A decolonizing epistemology of young Indigenous filmmakers                                                   XAMUEL BAÑALES

This interview explores the significance of Paper Rocket Productions—an independent film company co-founded by young Indigenous filmmakers in Northern Arizona, USA. The author highlights why their artistic works are exceptional, followed by a discussion with two of the filmmakers and co-founders of the enterprise. The conversation brings attention to their filmmaking, primarily to the forthcoming feature-length documentary Water is Life - Tó éí ’iiná até. This film reveals how the industrialization of the Navajo Nation negatively affects the sacredness of water and traditional ways of life, and the interview calls attention to how Paper Rocket Productions relates and contributes to a decolonizing epistemology.

URANIUM FILM FESTIVAL IN WINDOW ROCK 2018 WINNERS

The Young Indigenous Filmmaker Award was given to Deidra Peaches(link is external) for her short documentary “Doodá Leetso - The Legacy of Navajo Nation Uranium Mining”(link is external). Deidra Peaches is also co-founder of Paper Rocket Productions.

Filmmaker Deidra Peaches on indigenous representation, creating conversations                                                              GABRIEL GRANILLO

Deidra Peaches has been making films since middle school. Raised in Flagstaff, she met fellow filmmakers Donavan Seschillie and Jake Hoyungowa in grade school where they’d make shorts inspired by Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. That passion flourished in high school, and she eventually brought her talents to Northern Arizona University’s School of Communication where she made her first documentary "Shimásání," about her grandmother.

REFUSING NOSTALGIA: THREE INDIGENOUS FILMMAKERS’ NEGOTIATIONS OF IDENTITY                                                                Burglund, Jeff. “Refusing Nostalgia: three Indigenous Filmmakers’ Negotiations of Identity .” The Politics of Identity: Emerging Indigeneity (2013): 158–208. Print.

This chapter focuses on such thematic tensions in the creative work of three young indigenous filmmakers from Arizona in the UnitedStates: Deidra Peaches (Diné), Donovan Seschillie (Diné), and JakeHoyungowa (Hopi & Diné), known collectively as Paper RocketProductions.

Their collaborative productions afford viewers and scholars alike the opportunity to understand the artistic and political trade-offs and consequences of working at Native filmmaking. This, in turn, includes the implications of being identified by their tribal backgrounds, and of how the medium of film offers different means of exploring, representing, and creating identities that resist fossilised notions and expectations: some that pre-date intracultural filmic productions, and others that have grown up alongside developing trends - alluded to above - within the first four decades since Navajo-centered and directed films have existed. I see my reflections as a way to bring attention to their work, the beauty and technical skill exhibited in it, but also as a reflection on the contemporary process and challenges of making films outside of the commercial industry and within the support network of indigenous filmmaking and producing, including grassroots organisations such as Outta YourBackpack Media (OYBM), based in Flagstaff, Arizona, andLonghouse Media, based in Seattle, Washington.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION                                                                                                                                                                    ADRIAN MANYGOATS

Jake and Deidra started filmmaking at a young age, and to date, they are the youngest Native filmmakers to have their work accepted at Sundance Film Festival. Their short film Rocket Boy (2010) was one of 60 films chosen from a pool of 650 submissions.

"For Native people, storytelling is central to maintaining knowledge and culture…our voices and concerns are not represented in mainstream media."

Paper Rocket Productions uses their talent to serve over 500 tribes across North America, with a particular focus on encouraging young people to creatively use technology to connect with their culture. Having participated in a number of youth workshops themselves in their early days of filmmaking, Jake and Deidra are using what they’ve learned to launch their own workshops and mentor Native youth.

YOUNG NAVAJOS GET SUNDANCE NOD                                                                                                                                                        CINDY YURTH

Seschillie knew Peaches in grade school, but didn't know she was also making movies until they met again in a high school broadcasting class. She made "Imagine" in response to a National Museum of the American Indian project called "Thanksgiving Revisited," and it was selected for screening as part of that exhibit.

"Basically, it was an invitation to show what you're thankful for," she recalled. "I'm thankful for imagination."