BELLEVUE – Phil Lucas, an award-winning film producer and director who made a career of telling the stories of American Indians, has died at age 65.
Lucas, a Choctaw, died Sunday of complications following heart surgery.
In his four decades as a filmmaker, Lucas wrote, produced or directed more than 100 feature films, television series and documentaries in an industry that often stereotyped Indians.
“He’s definitely one of the pioneering creative forces in American Indian life,” Hanay Geiogamah, a professor of theater and American Indian studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Among his films were “The Broken Chain,” about the Iroquois Confederacy, and “The Honour of All,” a documentary about how the Alkali Lake Indians in British Columbia became almost entirely sober in the 1980s after being 100 percent alcoholic 20 years before.
Lucas also co-produced and co-directed the PBS series “Images of Indians,” about Hollywood stereotypes of American Indians, and directed the 1994 television documentary series, “The Native Americans,” for which he won an Emmy.
He was also nominated for an Emmy for his film “Dances for a New Generation,” a documentary about the American Indian Dance Theater.
Lucas, who lived in Issaquah, also consulted on television shows such “Northern Exposure” and “MacGyver.”
Lucas was born in Phoenix and grew up seeing racism, which helped inspire his film career, said Gary Robinson, Lucas’ production partner and friend.
Lucas received a visual-communications degree from Western Washington University in Bellingham, and had taught at Bellevue Community College since 1999. He ran the school’s annual American Indian Film Festival.
He is survived by his wife, Mary Lou, and five children.
A memorial service was held Thursday at Bellevue Community College.
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