Shane O. Slattery-Quintanilla

Shane Omar Slattery-Quintanilla is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker, writer, multidisciplinary artist, and Associate Professor of Film at Vassar College. He is writer, producer, and co-director of photography of The Seventh Fire, executive produced by Terrence Malick, Natalie Portman, and Chris Eyre. The Seventh Fire follows two Ojibwe men struggling with the rise of gang and drug culture on their reservation in Northern Minnesota. The film premiered at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival and has played in various festivals and cities around the world, including Stockholm, Madrid, London, and Tehran. In March 2016 the White House held a special screening of The Seventh Fire and Professor Slattery-Quintanilla was featured along with his collaborators in a panel discussion about the film.

He also wrote, co-produced, and edited The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández, a feature documentary about the killing of an 18-year-old American high-school student by US Marines. The film, narrated by Tommy Lee Jones, was broadcast nationwide by PBS in 2008 and nominated for a 2009 Emmy Award in the category of “Outstanding Investigative Journalism.”

Professor Slattery-Quintanilla received his BA from Harvard College and his MFA from the University of Michigan. His poems have been published in The New England Review and his lyric “Searchlight Soul” was adapted by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom for use in an original vocal score. It was published in 2012 by Edward B. Marks Music Company.

Shane grew up on a cattle ranch in Southern Colorado with his beloved parents Mary and Roger and his sisters Jessica, Hannah, Claire, and Eve. He is a member of the Nomadique Arts Collective, a cooperative dedicated to community building and social change through the arts.