Jonna McKone is a photographer, producer and filmmaker whose work blends documentary film, photography, experimental processes, archives and abstraction to explore the connections between land, power and memory. She is the recipient of awards, grants and fellowships from organizations including the Baker Award for film and video from the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, a Rubys Artist Project grant, the Center Documentary Studies’ Lewis Hine Fellowship, VisArts’ Studio Fellowship, The Maryland State Arts Council, Platteforum, Washington College, and the Puffin Foundation. She is currently completing a color darkroom residency at Full Circle Fine Art and is at work on a project exploring historical and cultural inscriptions on the land, focusing on the legacy of tobacco production. She teaches at Maryland Institute College of Art and UMBC.
Her first feature film, All Light, Everywhere (directed by Theo Anthony), premiered in Sundance’s U.S. Documentary Competition in 2021 where it won a Special Jury Award for Experimentation in Nonfiction as well as a special mention at CPH:Dox and the Jury Prize for best film at Documenta Madrid. Jonna produces independent films and produces, directs and edits films for non-profits and commercial clients. Before working in film she was an award-winning radio producer for places like the BCC, NPR, WNYC, The New Yorker Radio Hour, WYPR and Gimlet.
Jonna holds degrees from Bowdoin College and Duke University’s MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts. She has taught and developed education programs and community-based productions for Skidmore College, Goucher College, Johns Hopkins University, Radio Rookies, Appalshop in rural Kentucky, the Partnership for Appalachian Girls Education and in a Boston youth detention facility. These communities and a dedication to collaboration and the permeability of points of view deeply inform her artistic approach.
Duke Mfaeda