Mara Alper

Last Name: 
Alper
First Name: 
Mara

Mara Alper is an award winning video artist, documentary maker and screenwriter. Her works Silent Echoes, Stories No One Wants To Hear, Moving On, Maria Mitchell: Explorer of the Stars and other programs have screened on PBS, The Learning Channel, Kanal-4 Germany, Museum of Modern Art, NYC, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Dallas Museum of Art, Folkwang Museum in Dusseldörf, National Arts Club, Duke University, Dance Theater Workshop, The Today Show, and Good Morning America. She has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and Rockefeller Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, the Experimental Television Center/NYSCA and the Wexner Center for the Arts. As an educator, Alper was a Visiting Professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and now teaches video production at Ithaca College. SCREENINGS/BROADCASTS Museum of Modern Art, NYC Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Dallas Museum of Fine Art Folkwang Museum, D¸sseldorf PBS/WNET "Independent Focus," The Learning Channel"The Independents: Through Her Eyes" KANAL-4 Germany Dance Screen Festival, Berlin Video Dance Festival (Paris, Malta) Duke University Institute of the Arts Southeast Center for Contemporary Art, N.C. Nantucket Arts Festival Dance Theater Workshop, NYC "Good Morning America," ABC "Today Show," NBC National Arts Club, NYC Brooklyn Academy of Music, Rose Cinema INDEPENDENT PRODUCTIONS Silent Echoes (Experimental Narrative, 8:35 min.,1990) Contrasts the inner and outer life of a powerful spirit dancer. Deals with issues of representation, recognition and power using intricately cut images. Stories No One Wants To Hear (Experimental Documentary, 27 min., 1993) Combines interviews and poetic video art to explore the process of remembering childhood trauma, particularly mother-daughter/brother-sister incest. First doc. on this topic. Dist.: Fanlight Maria Mitchell: Explorer of the Stars (Educational Documentary/Historical Biography, 15 min., 1993). First U.S. woman astronomer, Maria Mitchell (1818-1889) Distributors: National Women's History Project, Maria Mitchell Association. Moving On (Experimental Essay, 10:30 min. 1997) Poetic exploration of acceptance of life transitions and overcoming fear. Regeneration (Documentary ) Multi-generational look at growing older. Close to the Bone (Video-Sound Installation) 3 channel installation explores memory and transformation. Materials: rocks, tree root, horse's skull. AWARDS MacDowell Colony Fellowship (2) 1985, 1993 GRANTS Millay Colony Fellowship for Screenwriting 1986 HONORS Yaddo Fellowship for Screenwriting 1987 Sundance Institute Screenwriting Finalist 1988 Creative Projects Grant, SUNY New Paltz 1989, 1992, 1995 National Educational Film & Video Gold Medal 1990 Experimental Television Center/NYSCA 1990-1999 NEA/Rockefeller Foundation Inter-Arts Grant 1990 Dance Film Association Gold Medal 1991 Axe-Houghton Foundation 1993, 1995 Folkwang Museum, Dusseldorf/Films for Art 1993 Dallas Museum of Fine Art 1994 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 1996 Museum of Modern Art, NYC 1997 Wexner Center for the Arts 1998 B.A. Harpur College, SUNY Binghamton, Theater/English, Magna Cum Laude M.A. New York University, Educational Theater, Summa Cum Laude