Frames of Reference Film Series: Kelly Sears

Join the Department of Art & Art History for the Frames of Reference series, an annual program of artists' films and videos. The event is programmed and organized by Jeremy Drummond, associate professor in visual and media arts practice.

Frames of Reference showcases some of the most creative, challenging, thoughtful, and visionary artists working in film, video, and alternative media today. Programs feature artists and artworks that resist conventions and ideologies of mainstream media; explore creative, innovative approaches to narrative and experiments in time-based media; and embrace unique viewpoints, perspectives, or frames of reference. Learn more about the Frames of Reference series. Follow the series on Instagram at frames_of_reference_rva.

The program features film screenings followed by a Q&A with Kelly Sears.

Kelly Sears is an experimental filmmaker, animator, and educator whose work explores the intersections of history, memory, science fiction, and documentary. Through collage, animation, archival reconfiguration, and hybrid forms of storytelling, she creates films that reimagine cultural histories and speculate on possible futures. Her films inhabit a space where the familiar and the fantastic converge.

Her films have screened internationally at festivals including Sundance, Slamdance, South by Southwest, the American Film Institute Festival, and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, as well as museums such as MoMA, the Hammer Museum, and the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam. 

Solo programs of her work have been presented at the Pacific Film Archive, Anthology Film Archives, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the San Francisco Cinematheque. Her films have received awards from at Slamdance, Ann Arbor, Black Maria, Chicago Underground, and Oak Cliff Film Festivals.

Co-sponsored by the Department of Art & Art History and the School of Arts & Sciences.