Duke Mfaeda
Sarah Soucek’s interest in human rights and the prison abolition movement was spurred by several visits to a youth correctional center for girls near Bard College, a private liberal arts campus in Red Hook, New York, where she earned her undergraduate degree.Soucek accompanied a professor to teach art classes at the juvenile facility. In addition to providing the young people with resources, they also created a platform for them to sell their work after they were released from custody.“That was just really… read more about The Power of Film in Human Rights Work »
Jenny StrattonLewis Hine Fellowship Presentation:While Still TenderMonday, September 236:00 pmCenter for Documentary Studies Please join us Monday, September 23 for a presentation and artist talk by Lewis Hine Fellow and MFA|EDA alumna Jenny Stratton, introductory remarks by Alex Harris.The Lewis Hine Documentary Fellowship connects the talents of documentary artists with the resources and needs of community-based… read more about Jenny Stratton: Lewis Hine Fellowship Presentation »
Felicity PalmaCassilhaus Travel Fellowship PresentationFriday, August 306:30pmRubenstein Arts CenterFilm TheaterPlease join us Friday, August 30 for a screening and artist talk from 2022 Cassilhaus Travel Fellow and MFA|EDA alumna Felicity Palma. Post-screening discussion moderated by Art, Art History & Visual Studies professor Pedro Lasch. Created with the idea that travel can be transformative in the life of an emerging artist, the grant offers a… read more about Felicity Palma: Cassilhaus Travel Fellowship Presentation »
Please join us in welcoming the incoming Class of 2026 cohort of Duke University MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts. VIDA BARBA ZAMORA Vida Zamora, originally from Puebla, is an artist formed at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Film/Video and Liberal Arts. Their passion for the documentary arts is an imminent result of their roots in the Global South, devotion to social organizing, and a forager’s approach to academia. Their most recent affair was moving to New… read more about Meet the MFA|EDA Class of 2026 »
Fallout by Madison Hill (’23) is an official selection of the Charlotte Film Festival and the Artist’s Forum Festival of the Moving Image, as well as a finalist for Best Documentary at the Twelve Lion’s Film Festival. Fallout was also in the Closing Night program of the Carrboro Film Fest, and Maddie is also speaking at the Charlotte Film Festival’s Carolina Crafted Films Roundtable. read more about Fallout by Madison Hill ('23) on the film festival circuit »
Jonna McKone (’15) named to DOCNYC’s 40 Under 40 slate of emerging documentary makers. See the 2023 list here. Jonna will also return to Duke to present a Lewis Hine Documentary Fellow Artist Talk November 15. read more about Jonna McKone ('15) named to DOCNYC 40 Under 40 »
Simone Barros (’23) is a UnionDocs Live/Work Artist-in-Residence. More info here. Simone is also a collaborator with 11th Organ, an experimental symposium created by Michael Kliën and presented by Duke Arts, which premiered Tuesday December 5th. More info here. read more about Simone Barros ('23) named UnionDocs Artist-in-Residence »
Erin Espelie (’14) co-edited and contributed to Deep Horizons: A Multisensory Archive of Ecological Affects and Prospects, published by Amherst Colle Press. Check it out here. read more about New Publication: Erin Espelie (’14) co-edited and contributed to Deep Horizons »
Sarah Garrahan (’14) is a 2024 Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellow. Sarah and Sue Ding were also named among the 2023 25 New Faces of Independent Films in Filmmaker Magazine. read more about Sarah Garrahan ('14) named 2024 Karen Schmeer Editing Fellow »
Congratulations to MFA|EDA alumna Alina Taalman (’15) and faculty member Shambhavi Kaul. Their films, Prearranged Signal and Slow Shift, respectively, were named to Film Comment’s Best Short Films of 2023. See the list here. Slow Shift also screened with Deborah Stratman’s Last Things and Cauleen Smith’s Songs for Earth and Folk at… read more about Alumni and Faculty works named to Film Comment Best of 2023 »
Please join us in welcoming the incoming Class of 2025 cohort of Duke University MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts. ANDIE CHEN Andie holds a B.A. in Economics from Columbia University in 2021. She has a background in visual arts, with a focus on photography and videography. She has worked various roles, including performing in off-off Broadway theatre, translating for immigration lawyers, teaching English and Math to high school students… read more about Meet the MFA|EDA Class of 2025 »
Jing Niu is a film and music video director based in Los Angeles. Her work addresses motifs of freedom, mythology and the Asian diaspora in the United States. She worked as an assistant editor and post-production coordinator on A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. Duke Arts and Forever Duke recently caught up with Niu to learn about her work. Read the Duke Arts Q&A at https://arts.duke.edu/news/alumni-spotlight-academy-award-edition-jing-… read more about Alumni Spotlight-Academy Award Edition: Jing Niu ('14) »
read more about Grad Student Exhibition Examines Muslim Identity Through ‘Remixed’ Photo Portraits »
Erin Espelie (’14) contributed an essay to the Art & Science issue ofissue of Tilt West Journal (vol 4, October 2022). Talena Sanders (’13) is a contributor to Canyon Cinemazine #6. Check out the esteemed lineup here. Anna Kipervaser (’15) tells us With The Tide, with the tide screens at Kinoskop Analog Experimental Film Festival in Belgrade, Serbia – Dec 2-4; How a… read more about MFA|EDA Bragdeck Roundup - Fall 2022 »
From 25 New Faces of Film 2022: In 2015, Alex Morelli drove through Ely, Nevada, for the first time as part of a larger western road trip. “I’d been researching the history of the west and the extractive economies that have sustained some of these really small, isolated communities,” he recalls. Ely had gone from stagecoach town to copper mining boom and bust before the late 1980s, when a maximum security prison facility was built there, becoming the area’s primary employer. After passing through, Morelli “couldn’t… read more about Alex Morelli ('20) among 25 New Faces of Film »
MFA|EDA alumnus Will Warasila ('20) provided the image for the cover of the September 26, 2022 edition of Time Magazine. read more about Will Warasila ('20) Photo on Cover of Time Magazine »
The Cassilhaus Travel Fellowship is made possible through a three-way partnership between Cassilhaus, an arts incubator featuring an artist residency and exhibition program, Duke's Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Arts (MFA|EDA), and the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University. It was created with the idea that travel can be transformative in the life of an emerging artist. The biennial $10,000 fellowship, funded… read more about Felicity Palma named 2022 Cassilhaus Travel Fellow »
Please join us in welcoming the incoming Class of 2024 cohort of Duke University MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts. _______________________________________ SHIRAZ AHMED Shiraz Ahmed is a visual artist and journalist most recently based in Hamtramck, Mich. Born in Texas, he earned his B.S. in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University before moving to Detroit in 2013 to work as an auto journalist. There, he discovered the city's dynamic culture and joined a… read more about Introducing the MFA|EDA Class of 2024 »
Alex Harris’ new book of documentary photographs, Our Strange New Land, opens with a dream-like image of a young Black girl seen through a doorway. Harris found the girl talking to herself and dancing to music. The action wasn’t “real,” as it was taken on a movie set and the young girl was rehearsing a scene she would later film. However, Harris later found out, the moment was created a reality borne from the young actors’ personality and the writer-director’s memories of her own childhood. “The scene was… read more about 'Our Strange New Land:' A Photographer Gazes at New Southern Narratives by Independent Filmmakers »
Please join us in welcoming the incoming Class of 2023 cohort of Duke University MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts. read more about Introducing the MFA|EDA Class of 2023 »
Jonna McKone (’15) is a producer on "All Light, Everywhere" which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. The film was awarded a Sundance Special Jury Award in Non-Fiction Experimentation. Jonna has also recently received a grant from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation as well as a fellowship at VisArts, and will have works on view at the Power Plant Gallery in September 2021. read more about "All Light, Everywhere" Wins Sundance Special Jury Award »
A Time of Youth: San Francisco 1966-1967, a new book of William Gedney photographs, was published in February of this year. Lisa McCarty (’13) edited the volume, and contributed the introduction, chronology, and afterword; Philip Gefter contributed the essay, Bill Gedney: A Time of Youth. We are proud and pleased to share here a conversation between Duke MFA|EDA alumnae, as photographer and Rubenstein Library Archive of Documentary Arts curatorial assistant Cassandra Klos (’20) interviews Lisa… read more about A Time of Youth: Lisa McCarty (’13) and Cassandra Klos (’20) »