Background
Freeland was born in Gallup, New Mexico, United States of America in 1980, to Navajo father and a Scottish mother.
Freeland was born in Gallup, New Mexico, United States of America in 1980, to Navajo father and a Scottish mother.
She was raised on a Navjo reservation, and her hometown, Gallup, was dubbed “Drunktown.” Freenland attended Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She has a Master of Fine Arts in film, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in computer animation.
She wrote and directed the short film Hoverboard (2012) and Drunktown"s Finest (2014), which garnered numerous acclaims after premiering at Sundance. She is a 2004 Fulbright scholar, focusing her scholarship on a field study of indigenous peoples in Ecuador. Freeland is a 2007 Disney Scholarship recipient and a 2008 Disney Fellowship semifinalist.
Freeland is also a 2009 Sundance Institute Native Laboratory fellowship
Prior to making her first feature length film, Drunktown"s Finest, Freeland previously worked as a production assistant, as a writer and as a camera international Freeland worked in a number of areas, including.
The Food Network, Walt Disney, Comedy Central, and National Geographic. Freehand directed a six-minute short, Hoverboard, utilizing Kickstarter to help fund the short.
The film was inspired by Back to the Future Participant World War II Drunktown"s Finest is her second venture into filmmaking.
The 95 minute long film is a coming-of-age story about the complex issues surrounding identity and the struggles faced by Native American people. The film"s name is inspired by a controversial 20/20 segment on American Broadcasting Company News, which branded the town of Gallup, New Mexico as "Drunk Town, United States of America", after the increase of instances of alcoholism on the border of the Navajo Nation. Freeland wrote, directed Drunktown"s Finest as means to combat the negative stereotype of her home community.
Freeland, who is herself a transgender woman, is also directing a digital series about queer and transport women called Her Story.
