~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jeanie Greene When you first meet Jeanie Greene, the words you are apt to come away with are perky, vivacious and animated. If you've paid close attention, the word driven also will come to mind. Perhaps being female and Native and trying to break into the media world has something to do with it. 
Jeanie Greene is a woman driven by a desire to share the beauty of Alaska Native cultures with the world. Her Christian faith, an integral part of who she is, has given her the strength to follow her dream. Jeanie comes from a family of mixed heritage. Her father is Eugene Blatchford from Teller and her mom is Mabel Joule, daughter of Tony Joule from Point Hope. Mabel's mother was Annie Lieb. Her paternal grandfather, Percy Blatchford, was from England. Her paternal grandmother was May Herman from Shismaref. Growing up in Sitka, Jeanie is the third oldest of seven children. She learned about Native culture in a home in which her Eskimo culture was strong and vibrant and not associated with the images she saw around her. According to Jeanie, those images were either of drunken natives or some version of the Noble Savage living off the land in some pristine state of being. Both images tended to rob Native people of their true identity and inherent dignity. When Jeanie was a young woman, she went through a "partying" stage during her 20s that reflected her frustration with the lack of creativity in her life. That all ended in 1980 when she met and married Dennis Greene, a clinical psychologist, who asked Jeanie a question no one had ever really confronted her with before - he asked her what her dreams were. More importantly, he didn't laugh when she said she wanted to be an actress. It is from this beginning that her career as an actress and television personality arose. Jeanie and her husband started a local production company called Way Off Broadway after they were married. She went back to school at the University of Alaska Anchorage and trained as an actress. As she became known locally - her first part was as a Japanese woman named Setsuko in a play called "Papa's Wine" - she started getting calls from local producers. One of those producers, James Montgomery, asked her to host a television program called "Showcase of Homes." That led to - the offer for her to produce a three-minute news feature twice a week called "Northern Lives" as part of the KIMO TV news broadcast.
Initially, the show was not seen in Anchorage. It was played at the end of KIMO's newscast only over the Rural Alaska Television Network, which was the precursor to today's Alaska Rural Communications System. She didn't realize the impact her show had in rural Alaska until the day she was walking in the Sears Mall in Anchorage soon after - "Northern Lives" went on the air. She found herself surrounded by young kids from the Bush who called after her, "Jeanie Greene! Jeanie Greene!" They knew her because her program was important in their homes. "Northern Lives" would eventually be aired in Anchorage. But it quickly became too small a forum for the story Jeanie felt needed to be told. Since KIMO woUld not give her the weekly half hour she thought the material deserved, Jeanie took off on her own with only her self-taught skills as an editor, her belief in her story and ultimately her belief that God would somehow make things work. He did, but she had to do all the legwork. "Heartbeat Alaska" was a child born of faith. Jeanie knocked on doors to get sponsorship anywhere she could. She bought second-hand equipment and in a world of beta, she worked in three-quarter inch tape because that was what she could afford. She begged her audience to send their tapes. "I was learning how to tell a story, but I was not yet a great editor," she said. I found my greatest talent was to see value in even amateur videos when it mirrored life and truth. I was not ashamed of showing the people as they are and recognizing the dignity and beauty there. Whether anyone else saw that didn't matter to me. It put the culture and people in the best light. "I kept going because of the feedback I got from "Heartbeat's" viewers, not because of sponsorship or support from the media." There was a rough time in the mid-90s when Jeanie felt that maybe she should just take a break because she was so tired. Her husband had an accident that left him with multiple broken bones. She needed to be home to help him heal, so she moved her whole production into the living room of her log cabin on Campbell Creek. No matter how tired she was, she kept going because of the calls from Canada and the e-mails from the Lower 48. She kept going because Native people throughout America and Canada told her she was showing them as they were, as no one else showed them.
The company, along with its nonprofit arm, One Sky Productions, now produces not only "Heartbeat Alaska" but also "We Win," a Christian Native show that airs nationally through the Sky Angel Christian Satellite system. "This Generation," set to debut in September, is a program developed by Jeanie Greene Productions that highlights Native youth. What keeps Jeanie going is a quote from the Bible, Galatians 6:9, that expresses her life's philosophy: "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Or, as Jeanie would put it, "God gets the glory because without Him, I would have been out of here a long time ago. I was tired and He refreshed me. And now we are taking off like a rocket." Story written by Elise Patkotak Choose an article:
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First Alaskans
Jeanie had found her life's passion. It was to show Native lives and Native cultures the way she knew them, benefit of the trappings of the Noble Savage or street drunk.
When a big space became available on Old Seward Highway, Jeanie saw it as a sign to expand her horizons. With her now-healed husband by her side, and four newly hired editors/videographers, two production assistants and state-of-the-art equipment, Jeanie Greene Productions was born.
