Fresh off the World Premiere screening of her feature film "A Shout into the Wind," at the 2007 All Roads Film Festival, seed grantee Katja Gauriloff is now making waves throughout Scandinavia.  In addition to landing coveted spots in the Helsinki Documentary Festival as well the Tromso International Film Festival in Norway, her film is set to broadcast nationally on Finnish television on December 18.  While she is  thrilled about the film's growing global outreach, Katja, born in Inari, Finland from a pedigree of Skolt Sami traditional storytellers, is most eagerly anticipating it's upcoming showcase at the Skabmagovat Indigenous Film Festival near her home in Lapland.  The current wave of success with this, her first feature film has been especially sweet for Katja.  As an aspiring filmmaker of Sami background, she was told many times over by an unnamed but respected veteran Finnish filmmaker that Sami and filmmaker do not go hand in hand, thus discouraging her from pursuing her dreams.  Proud and undaunted, it was Katja's sincere pleasure to invite this filmmaker to her Helsinki premiere.  Not only did he attend, he immediately came to her after the film, poked her in the shoulder and said, "Hey girl, you did good."

Photo by Rebecca Hale, National Geographic Society