Salem Mekuria
Salem Mekuria (born 1947) is an Ethiopian-born independent filmmaker, video artist and educator living in the United States.
Life and work
Mekuria was born in Addis Ababa. She was educated there and in Axum, and moved to the United States in 1967 where she studied political science and journalism at Macalester College. Mekuria earned a MA in education technology and media production from San Francisco State University in 1978. She later worked at the WGBH TV station in Boston, starting as a secretary but eventually becoming a producer for the Nova series. Mekuria is the Luella LaMer Professor of Women's Studies in the Art department at Wellesley College.[1][2]
She writes, produces and directs films and video installations related to Ethiopia.[3] Her work has appeared at the 50th Venice Biennale, the CinemAfrica Film Festival in Sweden, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the National Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian Institution, documenta 11 in Berlin and the New York African Film Festival in New York City.[4]
Mekuria was a Fulbright Scholar from 2003 to 2004.[5] She has been awarded fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study,[4] a New England Media Fellowship,[6] a Rockefeller Foundation Intercultural Media Fellowship in 1995, a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest International Artist Residency Fellowship in 1993[7] and a fellowship from the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College.[8] In 1991, she received the Massachusetts Artists Foundation Award.[3] Mekuria's films have received Juror's Citation (1991) and Director's Citation (1997) at the Black Maria Film & Video Festival.[3][4][1][9]
Works
Films
- Our Place In The Sun (1988), nominated for an Emmy Award
- As I Remember It: Portrait of Dorothy West (1991)
- Sidet: Forced Exile(1991) – documentary, received a Silver Apple at the National Educational Film and Video Festival in 1993, first place in the National Black Programming Consortium's Prized Pieces and Outstanding Independent film at the New England Film & Video Festival
- Ye Wonz Maibel (Deluge) (1997), received first place in the National Black Programming Consortium's Prized Pieces
Video installations
- Ruptures: A Many-Sided Story, Venice Biennale (2003)
- Imagining Tobia (2006-2007)
- Square stories, Addis Ababa (2010)
References
- 1 2 3 "Salem Mekuria". Ethiopian Women Unleashed.
- ↑ "Artists". Possible Cities/Imaging Africa. Haverford College.
- 1 2 3 4 "Salem Mekuria". Wellesley College.
- 1 2 3 "SalemMekuria". Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
- ↑ "Salem Mekuria". Institut für Raumexperimente.
- ↑ "Salem Mekuria". African Film Festival New York.
- ↑ Ukadike, Nwachukwu Frank; Teshome H. Gabriel (2002). Questioning African Cinema: Conversations with Filmmakers. pp. 239–252.
- ↑ "Appendix A: The Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College 1991-92 Fellows" (PDF). Technical Report. Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College. p. 19.
- 1 2 "Salem Mekuria". Women Make Movies.