Jason Houston and Dewi (day-wee) Sungai Marquis-Houston are life and creative partners who have been building a foundation of friendship, trust, empowerment, and creative expression since 2010. Our combined decades of experience and commitment to generous collaboration with story keepers around the world is manifested in our visual storytelling and arts company, eight16 creative.
Our films explore issues of social justice; relationship and reciprocity; the unseen forces that guide us; and Indigenous Ways of Knowing. Our art is rooted in traditional documentary but increasingly driven by experimental nonfiction approaches such as observational and experiential cinematography, animism, participatory collaborations, nonlinear timelines, and the recognition of each story’s spirit and sovereignty. Our practice is sustained through an alchemy of urgency, authenticity, appropriate authorship, and trusted relationships; and our films explore and celebrate uncertainty, nuance, and truths revealed in the complexities of the human experience. Embracing our role as dissenting artists in an industry designed around the business of assimilating filmmakers, we strive to create art that is direct, raw, and unapologetically disruptive. We preserve this vision through hands-on involvement at every step, resisting excessive gear, high production costs, or large technical teams.
We do independent creative nonfiction projects; commissioned documentaries; editorial assignments; purpose-driven campaigns; branded and commercial gigs with aligned partners; and photography.
CREATIVE Nonfiction FILMS
DOCUMENTARY + Nonprofit + Commercial Work
My Name is Not Amy
Truth about 205/150 (Video Art)
People of the Sacred Land
STORY COLLABORATIVE: Namibia
Story Collaborative Series: USAID
STORY COLLABORATIVE: Mexico
Ara, Untamed
Our Indigenous Future (workshop)
WY-Kan-USH-PUM
Healing in the Open
For The People
The Owyhee Project
Lakota Way Healing Center Winter Solstice (NONPROFIT)
Until We're All Home (Nonprofit Film Series)
What Is Found There (photography)
Emily Pike Vigil
Learning Session Lessons (nonprofit)
Farmer+Fisherman (Video Art)
Canyon Song
BBC's Untold America: Native Women's Wilderness
Green Chimneys (nonprofit photography)
Avanyu
Lakota Way Healing Center Funding Appeal (NONPROFIT)
ACE Hardware (commercial video & photography)
Portraits for Women (commercial)
Crocs (commercial)
Whole Foods (commercial)
A Changing Tide (nonprofit)
Libya, Full Stop
Love in the Tetons
EEL•WATER•ROCK•MAN
Rock Wall Climbing (Branded Documentary)
Mestizo-Curtis Park (nonprofit)
Gateway
Journey to Extraordinary: The Creekmores
Picture the Leviathan
Barrington Coffee Roasters (commercial)
46th President Joe Biden: America the Beautiful
2020 Presidential Candidate Joe Biden