Karem Orrego

Filmmaker & Multimedia Artist

At Rada Studio our mission is to create compelling visual stories that provoke critical thought and disrupt the status quo in nonfiction spaces and in our world at large. We seek to work through our craft of storytelling to heal, and question our relationship to systemic oppression. In these vulnerable spaces art is created and liberation reimagined for us as individuals and for our communities.

+Overseeing and collaborating with directors Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson on the creative development, production, post-production, and distribution of their upcoming documentary and narrative projects.

Rada Studio, LLC

A Chinese man and a special landscape in Utah.

That is Circling All Round the Sun

Descendants of the Western Shoshone and the Northern Paiute are two closely related tribes that once freely occupied the lands in the tri-state area of what are now known as Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon. This vast homeland of their foreparents quickly changed with Europe settlement and colonization. For the survival of their people, chiefs of the Western Shoshone and Northern Paiute nations signed treaties with the United States and were displaced to the Duck Valley Indian Reservation.

Shattering The Pictures in Our Heads deconstructs the “mythic Indian” stereotype as reductively and commonly depicted in popular culture through documentary film. Providing a platform for the genuine voices and perspectives of members of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, this multi-screen film combines 360-degree and traditional video formats to create an immersive environment steeped in the sights, sounds, and individual stories from this community. Expanding the conversation on Indigenous representation are intimate vignettes by Native American activists and artists living in Utah. These perspectives are woven into the exhibition to change the perception regarding the people whose lives, histories, and identities have shaped in the Mountain West from time immemorial.

The film was made by the Deep West Filmmaking Mentorship Program, an offering of the non-profit Edge of Discovery, whose mission is “to discover and amplify voices that have been historically silenced, simplified, and minimized, and to pair communities with filmmakers in mentorships and original projects.” Since its inception, the mentorship has produced over 40 short films with students from the Owyhee Combined School to capture the language, history, and culture of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes. It is a collective project that draws on many members from different tribal nations from the Intermountain-West.

Shattering the Pictures in Our Heads

A look at the life of poet, Nikki Giovanni and the revolutionary historical periods through which she lived, from the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter.

Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project

The joyful hand games played by Black girls from generation to generation.

Untitled ESPN Play Project

+Multi-screen documentary deconstructing the mythic Indian stereotype from the perspective of Native American activists living in the Mountain West.

+Produced an immersive cinematic installation with traditional and 360-degree video formats. It was presented at the Northeastern Nevada Museum (August to February 2021).

+ Wrote grant proposals, designed pitch decks, and secured donations under the constraints of COVID-19.

+Shattering exhibited at The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (January to April 2022). + Created a proposal to expand this project internationally as "T’inkisqa:Connection: Conexión."

Utah Museum of Contemporary Art 

+ "Shattering The Pictures In Our Heads" is an immersive film experience that deconstructs the mythic Indian stereotype by introducing perspectives from members of the Duck Valley Reservation.

+Developed 44 short documentaries with students of the Sho-Pai Tribes from the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, NV & ID.
+Provided workshops on narrative structure, visual style, and sound design. Managed tight budgets for travel, equipment, and other logistics required in remote locations.
+All short films presented annually at the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV.

+ Prepared lighting equipment as an assistant gaffer for "Savannah," a 360° short documentary about how a brave young girl came out to her congregation of Latter-Day Saints.
+ Collaborated on the stage design as an associate producer for "Sanctuary," an art installation with four stories where faith, sexuality, and identity intersected with virtual and augmented reality.
+ "Savannah" was presented as part of "Sanctuary," which premiered at the 16th annual Damn These Heels LGTBQ+ Film Festival in Salt Lake City, UT.
+ Sanctuary was created by the Interspatial Collective team of Dane Christensen and Carol Dalrymple.
+ Prepared lighting equipment as an assistant gaffer for "Savannah," a 360° short documentary about how a brave young girl came out to her congregation of Latter-Day Saints. + Collaborated on the stage design as an associate producer for "Sanctuary," an art installation with four stories where faith, sexuality, and identity intersected with virtual and augmented reality. + "Savannah" was presented as part of "Sanctuary," which premiered at the 16th annual Damn These Heels LGTBQ+ Film Festival in Salt Lake City, UT. + Sanctuary was created by the Interspatial Collective team of Dane Christensen and Carol Dalrymple.