2025 BEA Diversity and Inclusion Creative Award: Without Arrows by Delwin Fiddler Jr., Jonathan Olshefski & Elizabeth Day, Rowan University
Washington, D.C. – The 2025 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Diversity and Inclusion Creative Award has been presented to Delwin Fiddler Jr., Jonathan Olshefski & Elizabeth Day, Rowan University for their documentary, Without Arrows.
Filmed over the course of thirteen years (2011-2023), Without Arrows chronicles the vibrance and struggle of a Lakȟóta family. Delwin Fiddler Jr., a champion grass dancer from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, left his reservation as a young man to escape a trauma that splintered his family and built a new life in Philadelphia. A decade later he abandons it all and returns home to fulfill his mother’s ambition and carry on the legacy of their thiyóšpaye (extended family).
Jonathan Olshefski was the – co-producer, co-director and cinematographer on the film. His main collaborators were protagonist Delwin Fiddler Jr. (Lakota) and co-producer / co-director Elizabeth Day (Ojibwe). The three of them controlled all creative aspects of the film.
Delwin Elk Bear Fiddler is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Sans Arc band, and a world-renowned Native American performing Artist. Delwin’s accolades include performing for two American Presidents and the Royal Family in England. As a teenager he was a champion Grass and Hoop dancer on the pow-wow circuit. His traditional Grass Dance is displayed in a continual loop at the Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
Jonathan Olshefski is an artist and documentary filmmaker. His latest feature documentary Without Arrows premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Festival in 2024 and broadcast on PBS | Independent Lens in 2025. His debut feature documentary QUEST premiered at Sundance in 2017 and was nominated for multiple Emmys. In 2018 he received the “Truer Than Fiction Award” at the Independent Spirit Awards and was selected for a Pew Artist Fellowship. Olshefski strives to tell intimate and nuanced stories that honor his protagonists’ complexity by employing a production process that emphasizes collaboration, dialogue, and relationship seeking to amplify their voices and reflect their points of view in an artful way. He is a Professor at Rowan University and lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Elizabeth Day (Ojibwe) is a filmmaker from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Born on the Leech Lake Reservation and raised in the Twin Cities area, Day blends her Native American heritage with her urban upbringing to create films that employ traditional Ojibwe-style storytelling while using contemporary filmmaking techniques. Her work often explores the tension between traditional Native teachings and the life of a modern, urban Indian. A primary motivation for Day is recording and capturing the quickly fading pastimes of Ojibwe culture, an important and integral piece of Minnesota’s history. Through the medium of film, she examines a broad swath of Native history, from the rich Ojibwe tradition of storytelling to the painful history of government-enforced boarding schools to the modern-day identity issues faced by Native families.
The BEA Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) committee works to support BEA’s mission to take seriously our leadership responsibility to provide equal access and opportunity by fostering academic excellence, diversity, and inclusion among students, faculty, and media professionals. The BEA D&I committee seeks to promote research and creative work that addresses issues of diversity and inclusion in areas of race, ethnicity, gender, disability, country of origin, political affiliation, veteran status, field of research, socioeconomic status, religion, age, marital status, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Each year the committee reviews award candidates that have been self-selected from BEA’s interest division research competitions and the Festival of Media Arts faculty creative competition.
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About the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) – BEA is the professional association for professors, industry professionals and graduate students interested in teaching and research related to electronic media and multimedia enterprises. There are currently more than 2,500 individual and institutional members worldwide. Visit www.beaweb.org for more information.