about
work
EDUCATION
San Francisco State University
San Francisco, CA
Masters of Fine Arts in Cinema
Masters in Cinema Studies, graduated with honors
University of California at Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA
BA in Sociology
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
City College of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
Assistant Professor
2017 to present
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY
Assistant Professor, Transmedia
2016 to 2017
Simon's Rock College
Great Barrington, MA
Assistant Professor, Film Studies
2015 to 2016
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT
Assistant Professor, School of Film & Photography
2012 to 2015
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco, CA
Visiting Faculty, Film 2006 - 2012
University of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
Adjunct Professor, Media Studies 2010 - 2012
San Francisco State University
San Francisco, CA
Adjunct Professor, Cinema 2001 - 2011
California State University, Monterey Bay
Seaside, CA
Adjunct Professor, Teledramatic Arts & Technology
2004 - 2010
SELECTED FILM/VIDEO WORK
I Have Been Searching For You for a Very Long Time
digital video, in progress
>> Considers cultural and generational differences with my Indian father and his relationship with his increasingly infirm sisters in Tamil Nadu.
The Fifth Day
16mm short, in progress
>> A celebration of a winter of birds and birdsong in the context of climate change.
Latha
hi-def short, in progress
>> Tension builds in this Silicon Valley tale, as well-to-do parents resent the bond between their daughter and her nanny..
A Long-Term Memory for Light
16mm & HD multi-channel installation
A Ship in the Woods Residency, San Diego 2014
I, Daughter of Kong
website, single & multi-channel video, multimedia installation, with Cynthia Mitchell, Amy Hicks, Lara Allen, 2008 - present
>> Interviews, artifacts and evidence relating to the existence of I, Daughter of Kong, love-child of Fay Wray and King Kong. Half-human, half-beast, a starlet from the neck-up and gorilla from the neck-down. (idaughterofkong.com)
Solo Exhibitions
Primum Movens, Co-lab Projects, Austin, 2014
I, Daughter of Kong, Swing Space, New York City, 2009
Two-Person Exhibition
Skull Island, Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic, Zagreb, 2013Group Exhibitions
Prospect.3+ Hammond, Hammond Regional Arts Center, Hammond 2014/2015
More Than One Way, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, 2014
Observations and Findings, University Film and Video Association Conference, Bozeman, 2014
These Streams, Acre TV; July/August broadcast, 2014
One For The Other, Crane Arts, Philadelphia, 2012
Pixilerations [v.9], New Media Fringe Festival, Providence, RI, 2012
Proof, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, 2011
Big Muddy Film Festival, Carbondale, 2012
Inquiry Towards the Practice of Secular Magic, Pixel + Frequency, Los Angeles, 2011
Cinema by the Bay Film Festival, San Francisco, 2010
Code-switchers, The Lab, group show, San Francisco, 2008
Everything But Time
Super 8, 2011
>> A frenetic fusion of working minutes and commuter hours, soft ambience and hard architecture, resistance and surveillance—San Francisco rides the post-Fordist economy of boom and bust in the 21st century.
Exhibitions: San Francisco International Film Festival, Exploratorium, San Francisco; Big Muddy Film Festival, Carbondale, IL; Flathead Lake International Cinefest, Polson, MT.
The Way Back
hi-def, 2011
>> A frightening and strangely sad scene unfolds when a woman goes looking for God and finds herself trapped in a car with a troubled man.
Exhibitions: Nevada City Film Festival.
Canada
mini-dv, 2007
>> Set during the first Gulf War, Canada is the story of a young, half-Indian teenager who struggles with her New Age mom and her younger siblings as the family attempts to move from Northern California to Vancouver in a VW bug.
Exhibitions: San Jose Musem of Art; San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival; International Asian American Film Festival, New York; Portland Women’s Film Festival; San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival; Asian Pacific International Film Festival, Los Angeles; Cinema by the Bay, San Francisco, GAZE/Artists Television Access, San Francisco; Flathead Lake, International Cinefest, Polson, MT.
They Last
16mm, 2007
>> In 1956, at the age of sixty, Tressa Prisbrey began a 20+ year work of collecting discarded objects at the dump and building them into a series of paths, shrines, and bottle houses on her small property in Simi Valley. They Last imagines future alien archeologists in a hovercraft excavating this evidence of the past and reflects on the desire to create, preserve, and re-use, despite the impermanence of things.
Exhibitions: Southern Exposure/Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, Red Ink Studios, San Francisco, Artists Television Access, San Francisco.
Buckle My Shoe
16mm, 2002
>> Lyrical stop-motion dreamscape featuring a child’s reading lesson, a job search via the classified ads, and the machine-human hybrid of a pre-recorded voice on the other end of the telephone.
Exhibitions: Slamdance Film Festival, Park City; CMJ Festival, New York; Film Arts Festival, San Francisco.
Absenta
with Cynthia Mitchell, 8mm/16mm, 1997
>> Memory and desire refracted through the lens of Victorian-era cosmology.
Exhibitions: Frauen Kino Xenia, Zurich; Other Cinema, San Francisco; Ladyfest, San Francisco & Olympia, WA
CINEMATOGRAPHER & CAMERA OPERATOR
Thirty-Nine and a Half, hi-def feature, dir. Kara Herold, 2019 (Alex Mendez and I share DP credits)
Ed & Pauline, hi-def documentary short, (B camera) dir. Christian Bruno, 2014
Mother Mortar, Father Pestle, 16mm feature (B camera), Gibbs Chapman, 2013
The Moth: True Stories, hi-def for web, 2013
Rebound, hi-def single channel video, dir. Kadet Kuhne, 2012
Adobe, various hi-def industrials, 2009 – 2012
Perfect Parents, hi-def single channel video, dir. Christy Chan, 2011
The Gallus Brothers, 16mm music video, 2006
The Billy Nayer Show, 16mm music video, 2005
SPARK, mini-dv, two segments for KQED, 2003
Swell, 16mm music video, dir. Gibbs Chapman, 2002
She Wants to Talk to You, 16mm documentary, dir. Anita Chang, 2001
Recoil, 16mm feature, dir. Jarek Kupsc, 1999
Daydream Believer, 16mm short, dir. Kelly Peeples, 1998
Manada, 16mm, music video for Pansy Division, 1998
RELATED FILM EXPERIENCE
Eight years free-lance in film industry as camera assistant, gaffer, dolly grip and electrician in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City. I worked in cable television (Comedy Central’s Strangers with Candy), music videos, commercials and feature films.
With this experience, I developed an intimate knowledge of professional camera and video gear, lighting aesthetics and on-set problem- solving.
AFFILIATIONS
Served on the Advisory Board of the San Francisco Cinematheque, 2010 - 2012
RESIDENCIES, GRANTS & AWARDS
A Ship in the Woods Residency, San Diego, 2014
Faculty Block Grant, Montana State University, 2013
Honorable Mention, Princess Grace Foundation, 2006
Robin Eickman Award for Achievement, 2006
Squaw Valley Screenwriter’s Lab, Summer 2006
Best Cinematography for Recoil, Dahlonega International Film Festival, 2002
PUBLICATIONS
"Confessions of a Sex Addict: Caveh Zahedi Exposes Himself on Film," Release Print, January/February 2004
"Ownership in the Digital Age," Release Print, February 2003
"Jovial Tales for Tragic Sensibilities: A Retrospective of the Work of Jeanne C. Finley & John Muse," Release Print, September 2003
"Gibbs Chapman: American Bricoleur," Release Print, March 2002
"497 Days of Hollywood: Terry Zwigoff on the Making of Ghost World," Release Print, August 2001