Prairie Dust Films is a collaboration between filmmakers Suree Towfighnia and Courtney Hermann. Their current project, Standing Silent Nation, is an outgrowth of their dedication to documentary and their strong belief in the integrity and importance of the White Plume family and their struggle.

Suree Towfighnia is an independent filmmaker and freelancer. She was the 2004 recipient of the Studs Terkel Student scholarship award. Suree earned her MFA in Documentary Filmmaking at Columbia College Chicago. Her thesis project, Tampico, chronicles the struggle of a woman to survive by playing street music in the subways of Chicago (2004). Suree worked as Technical Coordinator of the Michael Rabiger Center for Documentary, where she helped develop a community around documentary.

At its essence, filmmaking is a relationship: a relationship between the subject and filmmaker, the director and crew, and the audience and the film.
— Suree Towfighnia

Courtney Hermann is an independent documentary filmmaker and educator living in Portland, Oregon. She has produced and directed several short documentaries, including Granite Janet (2000), which was nominated for the International Documentary Association's David L. Wolper Award. Courtney earned an MFA degree in Film and Video Production from Columbia College Chicago, where she was the Technical Coordinator of the Michael Rabiger Center for Documentary and a faculty member in the Film and Video Department. She is currently on faculty at The Art Institute of Portland.

Documentary helps us uncover our shared humanity.
— Courtney Hermann