Joanelle Romero is an American filmmaker and actress. Romero is the founder and president of Red Nation Television Network and Red Nation International Film Festival. Romero's film American Holocaust: When It's All Over I'll Still Be Indian was short-listed for an Academy Award in the Documentary Short Branch category.
In 2007, she was designated a Women's History Month honoree by the National Women's History Project.
Personal life Romero was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1957. Her mother, actress Rita Rogers (1936–2012), was born Ida Mae Aragón in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Joanelle grew up in Los Angeles, California, and her biography states: "Joanelle is born Spanish-Sephardic with Apache Ancestry, a relative of Pawnee, Dine, Paiute, Pojoaque, Southern Ute, Haudenosaunee and kinship to Lakota and Jicarilla Apache." She has stated that she is "a citizen of Mescalero-Chiricahua Apache, Dinétah, Paiute Nations and is Spanish Sephardic." In 2016, Native News Online wrote that she was "born Apache, Cheyenne and Spanish Sephardic Jew".
Career Romero was shortlisted for an Academy Award, for her documentary short, American Holocaust: When It's All Over I'll Still Be Indian, narrated by Ed Asner. Romero directed, produced, wrote and scored the music for the film that compares the Holocaust with the United States government's treatment of American Indians and the lasting effects on contemporary culture.
In 1991 Romero founded Spirit World Productions. She was inspired to create Spirit World Productions due to the lack of Native representation in the entertainment industry. Spirit World released American Holocaust: When It's All Over I'll Still Be Indian, a documentary film narrated by Ed Asner. Romero directed, produced, wrote and scored the music for the film that compares the Holocaust with the United States' government treatment of American Indians and the lasting effects on contemporary culture. As an actress Romero has appeared in films including The Girl Called Hatter Fox (1977 TV movie based on the novel by Marilyn Harris), 1982's Barbarosa and Parasite, and Powwow Highway.
Romero founded the nonprofit organization Red Nation Celebration Institute (RNCI) in 1995. In 2005 she received the Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award for "the vision to see the truth … and the courage to speak it". Romero started the first Native American Heritage Month in Los Angeles in November 2005, garnering her the title "The First Lady" of American Indian Heritage Month.
Romero has been a member of the American Film Academy since 2016.
Filmography
Film Year Title Role Notes 1977 The Girl Called Hatter Fox Hatter Fox TV movie 1980 Roughnecks Woman TV movie 1982 Barbarosa Young Prostitute Parasite Bo The Legend of Walks Far Woman Fire Wing TV movie Life of the Party: The Story of Beatrice Julie TV movie 1983 The Horse Dealer's Daughter Young Woman Short 1984 The Mystic Warrior Zitkala TV movie 1985 City Limits Woman in Desert 1986 Vendetta Elena 1989 Powwow Highway Bonnie Red Bow 1991 Miracle in the Wilderness Little Deer TV movie 2004 Black Cloud Victoria Nez 2021 Wild Indian Native Woman
Television Year Title Role Notes 1979 Insight Laura Episode: "When, Jenny? When?" 1982 Hill Street Blues Maria Episode: "Invasion of the Third World Body Snatchers" 1983 Cutter to Houston Starr Episode: "From the Smallest Crystal, from the Smallest Stone" 1992 Murder, She Wrote Alice Chee Episode: "Night of the Coyote"
Video games Year Title Role Notes 1996 Santa Fe Mysteries: The Elk Moon Murder Anna Elk Moon
References
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