Campus & Community

Transmedia Visiting Artist Penny Lane to Give Talk

Thursday, October 10, 2013, By News Staff

Transmedia Visiting Artist Penny Lane is to give a talk on Oct. 15 at 2 p.m. in Shemin Auditorium, Shaffer.

Penny Lane is a filmmaker (and occasional video artist, writer, curator and professor of film, video and new media art). She was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2012. Her first feature length documentary, “Our Nixon,” world premiered at Rotterdam, had its North American premiere at SXSW, won the Ken Burns Award for “Best of the Festival” at Ann Arbor, and was selected as the Closing Night Film at New Directors/New Films. She is a Creative Capital grantee and was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2012. Her films have also screened at Rotterdam, AFI FEST, Antimatter, IMPAKT, Images Festival, Oberhausen, FLEX FEST, Hot Docs, Full Frame, Rooftop Films, MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight and many other venues.

Lane has been awarded grants from Creative Capital, Cinereach, TFI Documentary Fund, Jerome Foundation, LEF Foundation, NYSCA, Experimental Television Center, IFP and Puffin Foundation. She was named “Most Badass!” at the Iowa City Documentary Film Festival in 2009.

In 2010,  Lane and Brian L. Frye formed a production company called Dipper Films specializing in making documentary films that are smart and fun.

Her 2005 documentary “The Abortion Diaries” has become an important organizing and educational tool across the nation. The film has screened in 42 states and worldwide at more than 350 different community venues, ranging from bars to art centers to clinics to colleges, and also on Yes! Television and Free Speech TV.

She received her M.F.A. in integrated electronic arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and her B.A. in American culture and media studies at Vassar College.

Her writings and interviews have been published in INCITE! Journal of Experimental Media & Radical Aesthetics, The Brooklyn Rail and On The Issues. From 2010 to 2011, she programmed the monthly Flaherty NYC series at Anthology Film Archives, showcasing risk-taking nonfiction films.

She has taught film, video and new media arts at Bard College,  Hampshire College and Williams College. She is currently a professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Colgate University.

And yes, Penny Lane is her real name.

Contact Person: Weigang Song, Trasmedia, 3154276499, wsong05@syr.edu.