Shannon Walsh

Shannon Walsh is a filmmaker and writer whose award-winning films cover topics ranging from labour rights, to grief and climate change. Shannon’s most recent film, The Gig is Up (2021) was hailed by Variety for being “galvanizing and moving” and The Hollywood Reporter called it “a devastating reality check”. Her films have been theatrically released and broadcast globally, screening in festivals around the world such as IDFA, Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, Doc NYC and many others, as well as playing art spaces, such as the Venice Biennale and the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

As a writer, she has published in a range of research areas looking at inequality, social justice and visual methods, largely focused on South Africa, where she has lived and worked. She has authored more than 35 journal articles and book chapters, & co-edited two books. Her new book The Documentary Filmmaker’s Intuition comes out in 2024. She was an Assistant Professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong from 2013-2016.

Currently, Shannon teaches film as an Associate Professor at UBC, and is a Research Associate at the South African Research Chair in Social Change at the University of Johannesburg. She was a Wall Scholar at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies from 2017 and a Guggenheim Fellow in 2020. In 2023, she was awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.


Filmography

Feature Documentaries as Director / Writer

Feature Documentaries as Executive Producer / Producer

  • 2023. PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF: A documentary about Gabor Maté, EP, dir. Asher Penn
  • 2019. ILLUSIONS OF CONTROL, Producer, co-produced with Andréa Schmidt
  • 2013. JEPPE ON A FRIDAY, Producer, co-produced with Elias Ribeiro & Sarah Spring

Shorts as Writer/Director/Producer

  • 2022. THIS PHANTOM PAIN, 3m15 & IN RELATION, 4m30, (experimental), Created and screened as part of the Cinépistolaire series, Cinema Public
  • 2019. MATSUTAKE HUNTERS,  18m (doc)
  • 2018. DISAPPEARANCE: HONG KONG STORIES, (360 nonfiction VR)
  • 2014. UNDER THE UMBRELLA, 8m (doc)
  • 2012. NIGER DELTA REMIX: LAST RIGHTS NIGER DELTA, 7m (experimental)
  • 2008. HOME-LESS, 23m (doc)
  • 2008. A BRUISE, BLUE, 5m (experimental)
  • 2007. GONE, 7m (fiction)
  • 2007. OPEN SPACE, 14m (doc)
  • 2007. SUB_MARE, 3m (experimental fiction)
  • 2006. SPACE IN BETWEEN, 12m (fiction) with Elizabeth Powell, Naila Keleta-Mae, Rich Terfry
  • 2006. INKANI, 13m (doc)
  • 2005. NO ONE IS ILLEGAL, 20m, (doc) with Juliet Lammers
  • 2005. ECLECTIC CURIOSITY, 2m (experimental)
  • 2004. CLOSE-UP, 3m (experimental)
  • 2004. FIRE & HOPE, 16m (doc)
  • 2003. SAYEH, 37m, (doc) with Kaveh Nabatian and Nicola Rutiglian o
  • 2002. REVISIT,16mm, (experimental fiction) 4m, with Rawi Hage

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