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Production Company Provides Alaska Images to Taiwan Via TV

Posted on: Tuesday, 26 July 2005, 15:01 CDT

Jul. 26--Jeanie Greene has collected and broadcast the voices of rural Alaskans for more than a decade, first around Alaska, then into the Lower 48 and Canada. Her latest audience: Taiwan.

Greene's Anchorage-based production company, Jeanie Greene Productions, now contributes to a daily news program on iTV, a new cable channel covering Taiwan's 12 indigenous peoples.

A stylish anchor announces the weather, stories from around Taiwan and two minutes of Alaska images -- Inupiat dancers in kuspuks, a Yukon Delta girl riding a scooter down a boardwalk -- underlined by Chinese characters.

The clips show how far Greene, 53, has come on her quest to make a living sharing Native stories and hint at how far she wants to go. In Anchorage, Greene plans to expand her operation into a second location and to produce a movie. With iTV, she'd like to create a worldwide indigenous channel.

"It's so thrilling!" Greene said. The former actress has apple cheeks, a quick smile and a fondness for bold jewelry.

Greene said an assistant manager from the Taiwanese show e-mailed her out of the blue. She was a little taken aback by the interest, but she knows she proved a point.

"Native television is possible," said Greene, who is half Inupiaq. "It's not dependent on mainstream media's content or approval."

"Heartbeat" started airing in 1992, on Alaska's rural cable channel. Hosted from her living room, the show was video postcards taped and mailed to her by villagers around the state.

Now "Heartbeat" airs on several channels statewide. Greene has a turquoise and terracotta-painted studio with laminate flooring and awards for public service on the walls, employs four videographers and produces two more shows. "We Win" features Alaska Native Christian ministers. "This Generation," about Native youth, airs at 7 p.m. Fridays on the state's rural satellite system, before "Heartbeat" at 7:30 p.m.

"Prime time in the Bush," Greene said.

"Heartbeat" also runs on Alaska public radio and television, and on university and tribal channels in Montana, Washington, Florida and Maine.

The program airs on a commercial Canadian channel, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.

After years of giving "Heartbeat" away, Greene said she likes being paid for the program. But money doesn't always come first.

When the Taiwanese station ran into funding difficulties shortly before going on air, Greene sent a batch of "Heartbeats" and told the assistant manager they could sort out payment later.

"I do things a little differently than most business people do," Greene said.

"She was always hopelessly hopeful," husband Dennis Greene said.

And sharing may be the first step to bigger joint projects, including bringing Alaskans iTV shows such as "Hunter," a soap opera of young indigenous people in urban Taiwan who cope with discrimination and have the occasional identity crisis.

Greene said television is a powerful way for people to learn about one another.

"When I see Taiwanese people drying fish," Greene said, "when I see them all up there dancing, I know what they're about on some level."

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Copyright (c) 2005, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

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Source: Anchorage Daily News

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