Twenty-year-old Kayla Briët explores themes of identity and self-discovery in multiple mediums of storytelling: film, multi-media arts, and music.
Kayla’s short documentary, Smoke That Travels, immerses viewers in her native Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation heritage and explores fears that her culture may someday be forgotten. This film has screened and won awards at over 45 festivals internationally, including MoMA in NYC, and has been archived in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.
As a multi-instrumentalist and self-taught composer, Kayla also scores her own films and creates music in styles ranging from cinematic to alternative pop to electronic. Her one-take, improvised live-score for director Ingrid Veninger's 80 minute feature film, "He Hated Pigeons," was performed at Outfest 2016 at the Director's Guild of America, and is described by The Hollywood Reporter as "a stirring mix of tribal themes, melodic delicacy and heartbeat percussion." She performs live as a one-woman band, with her keyboard, guitar, loop pedal, and guzheng zither, a traditional Chinese instrument.
Recently, Kayla was named a 2017 TED Fellow, a 2016 Sundance Film Festival Ignite Fellow, 2016 Adobe Creativity Scholar, 2016 MIT Chamber Scholar for her interest in blockchain technology, and a 2016 Oculus Launch Pad Artist for virtual reality.
Currently, she is creating and directing documentary and experimental film to preserve identities and culture, as well as immersive experiences in the virtual reality space.
Areas of Expertise
Art, Community organizing, Documentary, Education, Film, Liberatory design, Music, Technology, VR
