Valerie Bischoff is a film director and writer whose humanistic stories about outsiders from the modern American West have garnered awards and recognition. Her short film Derby Kings (2012) won the prestigious 2011 Princess Grace Film Scholarship, premiered at the 2013 Palm Springs Short Film Festival and, after a successful festival run, was acquired by the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian. Her short film Veterans (2010) won the Adrienne Shelly Award for Best Female Director and screened internationally. Valerie’s documentary credits include MTV’s Rebel Music: Native America (2014), which became one of the most viewed online videos in the history of MTV. Valerie continues to hone her storytelling skills by writing, directing and producing short documentaries for top media outlets, including NBC, AJ+, and Fusion. After receiving her B.A. in Film from the University of California at Santa Cruz, Valerie earned a Fulbright Scholarship where she created a feature documentary about Estonia’s disappearing Soviet history. Valerie graduated in 2012 with an M.F.A. in Film Directing from Columbia University in New York City and is currently developing her first feature film, True Patriots.

True Patriots — Jamie, a small-town electrician, struggles to gain compensation for her brother’s debilitating workplace injury. Her outrage finally boils over at a town hall meeting, causing an old friend from high school to resurface. After her friend offers her an alternative path to justice, Jamie is quickly swept up in his mysterious group whose escalating schemes threaten to tear the siblings apart.