Join Emmy award winning history documentary producer/directors from Twin Cities PBS, Daniel Pierce Bergin, Kevin Dragseth, and Leya Hale, to learn about storytelling, structure, archival resources, and editing tips and tricks to create content that brings the past to life.
Q & A to follow.
Facilitators:
Daniel Pierce Bergin (He/Him)
Executive Producer, WEM Endowed Director of History
TPT - Twin Cities PBS
Daniel Pierce Bergin creates media that explores diverse people, places, and the past through restorative narratives. The Twin Cities PBS Executive Producer and WEM Endowed Director of History has won over 20 regional Emmy awards for productions ranging from 30 second PSAs to feature length documentaries including Jim Crow of the North, Out North: MNLGBTQ History, Lost Twin Cities 5, and Make it OK: Mental Illness & Stigma. His documentary With Impunity: Men & Gender Violence was named ‘Best Documentary of 2012’ by Mpls/St. Paul Magazine. Daniel has had films broadcast across the PBS system and screened at a range of festivals including Input, Pan African Film Festival, the Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival, The Hollywood Black Film Festival, and Chicago International Children’s Film Festival.
The Minneapolis native and University of Minnesota graduate has served as a director on the boards of several community media organizations. Daniel has been an adjunct instructor and lectured and presented in countless schools, colleges, and community settings. He has been recognized as a MN State Arts Board Fellow, received the UofMN
Outstanding Alumni Award, the A.P. Anderson Award for significant artistic contributions, and was awarded a Bush Leadership Fellowship for his work in community media.
Leya Hale (Dakota/Diné)
Producer
TPT - Twin Cities PBS
Leya Hale comes from the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota and Diné Nations. She is a multiple regional Emmy award winning documentary producer for Twin Cities PBS. Her work brings visibility to Indigenous lifeways and issues impacting her community. She is best known for her feature films, The People’s Protectors and Bring Her Home, both distributed by PBS. In 2020, Leya was awarded the Sundance Institute Merata Mita Fellowship for Indigenous Artists and Bring Her Home was selected to represent the US at INPUT 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. When not producing features, Leya works on a variety of short form content in efforts to highlight underrepresented stories within the upper Midwest region.
Photo Credit: Brett Dorrian Benedict
Kevin Dragseth
Senior Producer
TPT - Twin Cities PBS
Kevin Dragseth has been creating story-driven, human-centered media for more than 25 years. Specializing in documentary style and multicultural storytelling, Dragseth seeks out under-told stories and under-heard voices. He has been producing at Twin Cities PBS since 2015, and in that time has produced films on a wide range of issues including childhood trauma, housing justice, science and technology, historical documentaries, and scores of short-form work in Somali, Hmong, Spanish and other languages. Dragseth has four children and two grandchildren, and enjoys mentoring the next generation of storytellers to share their gifts with the world.
Register HERE.