00:00Born on the rest, raised on the rest, say a prayer for my family sitting in the feds.
00:05How many movies can you name with a native or indigenous person as the protagonist?
00:10Not nearly enough.
00:12Today's Bay of the Day is L.T. McIntosh, the founder of Outlast Film Camp,
00:17a space where indigenous youth could create and tell their own stories
00:21in a way that accurately and genuinely reflected their experiences and worldviews.
00:26Hi.
00:27How are you?
00:28I'm good. How are you?
00:29I'm good.
00:31What made you start the camp?
00:33In 2015, I was in my junior year of college at the University of Southern California.
00:39I came across this talk about Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota,
00:43and the only thing that this presenter had shown was like lots of poverty and lots of alcoholism.
00:49And it kind of gut punched me, but like not because that those were sad images,
00:53but I was like, how does an outsider go into a community and just broadcast
00:58the worst things that they can find and not highlight any of their strengths?
01:01And so I was like, you know what?
01:03I'm going to start a camp for indigenous and black kids, and we're going to create our own media,
01:09and we're going to take charge and reclaim our narratives and not rely on outsiders to come in and get
01:13it wrong.
01:14So that same day that I saw that presentation, I called up some friends and I was like,
01:19hey, do you guys want to start a camp at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota?
01:22And they were like, yeah, and that was five summers ago.
01:25You probably have some of the most amazingly dedicated and loyal friends and family.
01:32I'd never been an educator.
01:33I'd never run an entire program.
01:36And neither had they.
01:37And, you know, in the course of three months, we crowdfunded $7,500, drove from Los Angeles to South Dakota,
01:44and ran our first camp.
01:46I am dying.
01:46I am dying.
01:47I know all of us are dying over this.
01:49How did you come up with the name for the film camp Outlast?
01:53The name Outlast is really about if we come together, we can outlast anything.
01:57A big part of Outlast is bridging the gap between black and indigenous communities,
02:01especially considering that the founding of this country relied on the subjugation of both of these groups.
02:07And so if we come together and we support the youth and we support each other,
02:10we really can't outlast anything.
02:12Why is it important for minorities to create content and get their stories out there?
02:19Growing up, I loved movies.
02:21I loved television.
02:22But I noticed that I wasn't seeing myself in it.
02:25And when I was, it was the worst things that you could find.
02:27Black people were represented as thugs and gangsters or hookers and things like that.
02:32And I'm like, that's not my reality.
02:34Black people are not a monolith.
02:36And you're ignoring the hardships one has to go through to even consider doing certain things.
02:41That affects how we see ourselves.
02:43I want to do whatever I can so that when little kids of color are looking at media and engaging
02:49with media,
02:50it inspires confidence and it inspires pride.
02:52And I don't want them to ever walk away from outlast feeling like that they didn't have control over their
02:58narratives,
02:59over their stories, over their lives.
03:01And so we go in and we're like, here's a camera, here's sound equipment, you know, here's how you write
03:05a script.
03:06What do you want to say?
03:08Scene one, take one.
03:18It is absolutely my mission to make sure that young people of color represented the way that they want to
03:24be.
03:25Your story actually is very, very, very similar to mine because growing up,
03:29seeing transgender people represented on TV, it was a negative role.
03:34And you are giving the power back to the people that maybe never felt like they had a voice,
03:39never felt like they had somebody to look up to.
03:42I admire your ambition so much for putting the time and energy into giving other people voices.
03:48Does anybody inspire you?
03:50The current, you know, huge inspiration is Tyler Perry.
03:53Like he just opened the first fully owned by a black person studio and he's making content
03:58that speaks to a certain demographic of black people and he is proud of it.
04:02And he's not asking for permission and he's not asking for forgiveness.
04:05And that's what I want this camp to be.
04:07That's what you're doing.
04:08This is what LT is doing.
04:11Like you have succeeded and you are only going to grow from here.
04:14Would you ever want to collaborate with anybody?
04:17When I think about collaborating with people, I think about who would I want to come to camp and speak
04:21to the kids.
04:21Right.
04:21And I would love if Amanda Sills, like, you know, came and just gave that energy.
04:26Her whole thing is being smart, funny, and black.
04:29And it's like, this is who I am.
04:30This is who you're going to get.
04:32Take it or leave it.
04:33I want as many people as possible to come and say, be proud, be authentic, be fearless.
04:38What's the biggest challenge that you have running Outlast?
04:41The absolute biggest challenge is funding.
04:44You're doing more than giving a film camp.
04:46You are literally empowering kids of color.
04:49Where can people find Outlast?
04:51On our website, outlastfilmcamp.com, when you empower the youth, you're also saving your own life.
04:56They are the future.
04:57And if we can make them feel good about themselves and feel proud and give them that power, it helps
05:02us, too.
05:03Visibility, diversity, and being loud about your story and who you are is so important.
05:09And LT represents that and embodies that so much.
05:13Best of luck to Outlast.
05:15And until next time.
