Tuya Gadu Productions

Brit Digvniha Hensel is an Oklahoma-based director and award-winning filmmaker whose work has been featured at Sundance, imagineNATIVE, Hot Docs, and Full Frame. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, she is the first female enrolled member of the tribe to direct a film selected by the Sundance Film Festival.

Her films explore themes of the environment, Indigenous women’s experiences, language, and her people’s deep ties to the lands of Oklahoma and North Carolina. In 2022, her short film ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, received a nomination for Best Short Documentary at the 38th IDA Documentary Awards, and was selected for the inaugural L.A. Times Op-Docs.

Through Tuya Gadu Productions, the company she co-founded with her sister and fellow filmmaker Taylor Hensel, Brit premiered her first narrative film, Thin Places, co-starring Shelby Factor and Quannah Chasinghorse. The film premiered at imagineNATIVE in June 2025, where it won Best Performance in a Short Film, and later received Best Oklahoma Short Film at deadCenter. She is also currently in production on her first feature documentary, What She Carries, under the same banner.

In 2021, Brit received four regional Emmy® Awards for her work as a producer and director on the documentary series Osiyo: Voices of the Cherokee People. She also served as 2nd AC on the Emmy-nominated FX series Reservation Dogs.

In recognition of her impactful work, Brit was named 2022 Tulsan of the Year by Tulsa World Magazine and was awarded the 2021-2023 Tulsa Artist Fellowship. Brit was an instructor at the Cherokee Nation Film Institute, helping cultivate the next generation of Indigenous filmmakers.

A former cultural specialist for the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Brit also co-founded Rez Dog Resources, an advocacy collective supporting animal welfare and rescue efforts across Oklahoma’s tribal and rural communities.