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Hey, I'm Dawn!
River Falls, Pierce County
2015 Emmy Award winning producer and 2010 McKnight Filmmaking Fellow Dawn Mikkelson’s work has been seen on PBS, OUTtv, and Free Speech TV, and has screened at numerous international festivals including the Galway Film Fleadh, Cambridge Film Festival, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, DocuFest Atlanta, Leipzig DOK Market, American Indian Film Festival, Planet in Focus, and Washington DC Environmental Film Festival. Mikkelson has completed four award-winning independent feature documentaries, The Red Tail, Green Green Water, THIS obedience, and Treading Water: a documentary, which illuminate larger societal issues while creating understanding through the intimate stories of individuals.
A former television news reporter at an ABC affiliate, Mikkelson often speaks and writes on issues around documentary filmmaking and social justice for MPR (Minnesota Public Radio) and at festival panels, colleges, and universities. Mikkelson has taught Documentary Film as Adjunct Faculty at Ottawa University in Kansas, as well as at IFP Minnesota. In 2006 Mikkelson’s film, Hope for Recovery: Understanding Mental Illness (produced in collaboration with Twin Cities Public Television and NAMI-MN) won the Eric Sevareid Award by the Northwest Broadcast News Association (NBNA).
My Projects
Risking Light
Saint Paul • Documentary
A mother embraces her child’s killer. A torture survivor ponders revenge. What is harder, or more crucial, than forgiving the unforgivable?
Green Light
Minnesota Mean
Saint Paul • Documentary, Sport
The quirky and powerful women of the internationally competitive MN RollerGirls, risking life and limb for a chance to be best in the world.
Green Light
Projects I'm Supporting
Aloha
Los Angeles • Drama, Family
Aloha follows one new mom's quest to find the perfect birth announcement after the delivery of her baby doesn't go quite as planned.
Green Light
The Atavist
Pittsfield • Adventure, Sci-Fi
A young woman travels to the past, but when the things she leaves alter history, she must get them back to save the future.
Green Light
BROTHERS
New York • Drama, LGBTQ
A group of transgender male friends live, love and bind in Brooklyn.
Green Light
Invisible
New York • Documentary
Driven by his mother’s fight against Fibromyalgia, filmmaker Nick meets an athlete, an advocate, & a migrant, while worried about his health
Green Light
Interference
New York • Drama, Thriller
A violent altercation between a police officer and a black man left one person dead. A couple passing by must decide what they believe.
Green Light
Breasts
New Orleans • Drama
When a working mother mentions to her male co-worker that she has to pump her breasts, he slaps her with a sexual harassment complaint.
Green Light
Hutterite
Sioux Falls • Drama
Marigold, a young girl living in a Hutterite Colony must choose between her life in the commune and the freedom of the outside world.
Green Light
Self Portrait
New York • Drama, Experimental
A young woman reflects on the authenticity of her parents marriage in a staged dinner scene revealing three individual perspectives.
Green Light
Lady Parts Justice in The New World Order
Chicago • Comedy, Documentary
Lizz Winstead's band of Merry Pranksters defends reproductive rights in this documentary by award-winning filmmaker Ruth Leitman.
Green Light
An Act of Terror
Charlotte • Drama, History
The true story of Virginia Christian, a 16-year-old African American girl accused of murder in the Jim Crow South.
Green Light
Exposure
Pepin • Romance, LGBTQ
Two women set off on separate journeys of self-reflection and contemplation. What happened between them? How did the relationship die?
Green Light
Half the Picture
Los Angeles • Documentary
HALF THE PICTURE is a feature documentary about working women directors in Hollywood.
Green Light
F*ck Yes Series
Los Angeles • Romance, Comedy
F*ck Yes! is what affirmative consent sounds like. Sex made hotter. SoSFW (sort of Safe For Work.)
Green Light
Mrs. Drake
Denver • Drama
It takes courage and strength to raise a child but it's constant doubt that consumes a parent.
Green Light
Dreams of Daraa (Formerly Entitled The Language of Laughter)
Los Angeles • Documentary, War
A riveting, up-close portrait of the Syrian refugee crisis, told through the eyes of one brave young mother and her three daughters.
Green Light
Custodian
Los Angeles • Animation, Fantasy
The macabre account of a man whose inner demons drive him to seek redemption in the aftermath of bloodshed.
Green Light
Pin Up! The Movie
Boulder • Documentary, Transmedia
Dangerous. Sexy. All American Girl.
Green Light
Rez Comedy
Red Lake • Documentary
Two Native American Comedians from different reservations head West to break into the comedy mainstream. Soundtrack by Charlie Parr.
Green Light
Shadows of the Valley
El Paso • Documentary
When cartel wars erupt in the Valley of Juarez, a man must risk his life to rescue orphans hiding in the shadows of the Valley of Death.
Green Light
A punk Daydream
Los Angeles • Documentary
Indonesia has one of the biggest punk scenes in the world, amidst poverty, pollution and oppression.
Green Light
Time Well Spent
Kailua-Kona • Documentary, Sport
A story of four boys who go on the surf trip of a lifetime to discover their worth, and that your past does not define your future.
Green Light
The Great Flip-Off
Philadelphia • Documentary, History
Facing extinction, the last extreme circus bareback riders unite for one final, death-defying performance.
Green Light
Risking Light
Saint Paul • Documentary
A mother embraces her child’s killer. A torture survivor ponders revenge. What is harder, or more crucial, than forgiving the unforgivable?
Green Light
Don't Talk About the Baby
Washington • Documentary
There shouldn't be a stigma surrounding miscarriage, stillbirth or infertility. This has happened to someone you know--Let's talk about it.
Green Light
The Hard Way
Missoula • Documentary
An inspiring story about an 89-year-old trail runner who does things the hard way to maintain purpose, momentum and vitality.
Green Light
Rideout: One Last Summit
Chiang Mai • Documentary
The story of a man leaving home to go home.
Green Light
A Queen For The People
New York • Documentary, LGBTQ
Bob the Drag Queen's career is on the rise. Where the hell she off to next?
Green Light
THE NOISE MADE BY PEOPLE
Seattle • Drama, LGBTQ
When you have been silenced, all you hear is noise.
Green Light
Ordinary Women
San Francisco • Animation, History
Feminist Frequency's new video series about defying stereotypes, challenging the status quo, and being extraordinary.
Green Light
Kinesthesia
Los Angeles • Drama, Shorts Program
Frustrated at her inability to accurately remember a particular time of happiness in her life, Minny sets out to find it again.
Green Light
Radical Roots: The Story of a Food Revolution
• Documentary
In the 70s radical youth created an explosion of food co-ops, only to be torn apart in a war over what- and who- their revolution was for.
Green Light
See You On the Other Side
Seattle • Romance, Sci-Fi
Love is a superpower.