FILMMAKER & EDUCATOR IN AUSTIN, TX

Filmmaking to Decolonize is a class I developed at the University of Texas at Austin to address the underrepresentation of female-identifying students, students of color, first-generation students, and those otherwise marginalized in film and media classrooms (and throughout the film industry).

I base the class on Felicia Rose Chavez's groundbreaking book The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop and integrate a diverse understanding of film history and theory into a production class focused on personal, culturally-specific storytelling.

The class...

- Supports all students in making personal films, which is the most important way for emerging filmmakers to re-center their narratives.

- Uses evidence-backed anti-racist workshop guidelines to structure critique around filmmaker’s specific goals, audiences, and cultural codes.

- Pushes students to explore the storytelling traditions within and beyond their own communities, identify cultural contact zones, understand the legacy of and antidotes to “othering” in media, and reclaim autoethnography as an art form as well as a political act.


For course syllabus and more information on implementing inclusive teaching practices into your classroom, please email me.