Abigail Severance makes films and other images about nostalgia, material history, and the queer mind. Her work has screened at the Broad Museum, MOCA/LA, Sundance, REDCAT, Studio Museum of Harlem, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Wexner Center for the Arts, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Curta Cinema Rio, Women in the Director’s Chair, London LBGT Festival, MIX, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, among other sites. Her essay film ACADIA, about nationalist nostalgia and queer origin stories, is currently in post. She has received a Fulbright, a Film Independent fellowship, and a CalArts Research & Practice Grant for WE THE DEVOTED, a near-future narrative about borders and labor, made collectively with its ensemble cast. She has been faculty at the CalArts School of Film/Video since 2009 and served as Dean 2019-2024.
R E S I D E N C I E S , F E L L O W S H I P S + A W A R D S
2024 Glogauair Residency, Berlin
2023 Flaherty Film Seminar: Queer World Mending
2022 Flaherty Film Seminar: Continents of Drifting Clouds
2020 Fulbright (awarded), Univ. College Cork, The Edge of the Flat Earth (canceled; COVID)
2018 Research + Practice Grant, CalArts, We The Devoted
2015 Faculty Development Grant, CalArts, Acadia
2014 Creative Capital: On Our Radar
2010 Artist-in-Residence, Stonelake Farm, Humboldt, California
2009 FIND Fellowship, Screenwriting + Directing Labs, The Summer We Drowned
2004 Spotlight Award for Directing, Saint Henry
2002 Wasserman Fellowship, Come Nightfall
2002 Carl David Fellowship for LBGT Filmmakers
2000 Best Gay/Lesbian Film, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Pump
1999 Director’s Citation Award, Black Maria Film + Video Festival, Pump
W O R K S A M P L E S ( m o v i n g i m a g e )
Hotel La Casona (in progress): https://vimeo.com/abigailseverance/casona
Acadia (in progress): https://vimeo.com/abigailseverance/acadia-cabin
Kinesthesia Series (2014): https://vimeo.com/99784911
Evidence (2014): https://vimeo.com/112421948
S C R E E N I N G S + E X H I B I T I O N S ( s e l e c t )
2021 Pump Ann Arbor Film Festival, New Queer Cinema retrospective
2018 Evidence The Broad, Los Angeles (in En Cuatro Patas/On All Fours)
2017 But How We Long ATA, San Francisco // Last Projects, LA
2015 Kinesthesia Series REDCAT, LA, Transforming Spaces: New Work from L.A. Filmmakers //
Outsider Arts Festival, Austin // Antimatter, British Columbia
2014 Evidence Commissioned by VisualAIDS for 25th Anniversary of A DAY WITHOUT ART. Studio
(w. Julie Tolentino) Museum of Harlem // New Museum, NY // MOCA LA // Dallas Museum of Art //
Andy Warhol Museum // Brooklyn Museum // Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston + over 50 more
2013 Kinesthesia Series Feral Studios, Joshua Tree
Jenny Mi Amor Houston Queer Film Festival // Boston LBGT Film Festival
2012 Kinesthesia Series Proteus Gowanus, New York in Negro Marfil/Ivory Black
Jenny Mi Amor Curta Cinema, Rio // Mezipatra, Prague // Melbourne Queer Film Festival //
Frameline, San Francisco // Outfest, LA // Austin Gay + Lesbian Festival // Image
+ Nation, Montreal
2011 Hard Times The Ruckus // Music Fog
Jenny Mi Amor Antimatter, BC
Eye Witness Performance s p a c e, London // Feral Studio, Joshua Tree
2009 Eye Witness Phyllis Stein Gallery, LA
2004 Saint Henry Los Angeles Film Festival // Nat’l Museum of Women in the Arts // American
Cinematheque, LA // Directors Guild of America // Palm Springs Intl Shorts Festival // Women in the Director’s Chair, Chicago–National Tour // Frameline // London Lesbian + Gay Film Festival // Budapest Lesbian + Gay Film Festival // New Festival, NY // Outfest // Image + Nation
2003 Come Nightfall Sundance Film Festival // Los Angeles Film Festival // Ann Arbor // Women in
the Director’s Chair // Frameline // London Lesbian + Gay Festival // Outfest
2002 Siren Sundance // Ann Arbor // New Festival // Outfest // Image + Nation // Berlin Lesbian Film Festival // MIX, New York + Sao Paolo // Women in the Director’s
Wake Wexner Center for the Arts // HBO // Sundance Channel // Ann Arbor // Pesaro Film Festival, Italy // European Media Arts Festival, Osnabruck, Germany // San Francisco Cinematheque // Nashville Film Festival
Come Nightfall Austin Lesbian + Gay Film Festival // MIX, New York + Sao Paolo
2001 Bone Wish Los Angeles Film Festival // Ann Arbor // Sao Paolo Shorts // New Festival // Outfest // Austin Lesbian + Gay Festival // Berlin Lesbian Film Festival
Siren Frameline // Dublin Lesbian + Gay Festival
Pump Tokyo Intl Lesbian + Gay Film Festival
2000 Pump Ann Arbor Film Festival (best queer short) // Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Bay Area Now 2 // BFI UK Tour–26 cities // Los Angeles Film Festival // Hamptons Intl Film Festival // Black Maria Film Festival (director’s citation) // Chicago Intl
Lesbian + Gay Film Festival (best short) // Verzaubert Tour, Germany–5 cities //
Sensory Perceptions, Portland (best short) // New Festival, NY // Image + Nation // Berlin Lesbian Film Festival // London Lesbian + Gay Film Festival
1999 Pump Frameline // Cork Intl Film Festival // Film Arts Festival // Outfest
P R E S E N T A T I O N S + A R T I S T T A L K S
2019 The Horrible Image: Aesthetic Strategies for Representing Misery + Violence , AFI Directing Workshop, LA
2018 Generative Dysphorias in the Homeward-Bound Essay Film , Visible Evidence XXVI, USC
2018 Manifesto: Radical Hope (keynote) & The Horrible Image: Ethics + Aesthetics of Representing the Abject,
Creative Research Conference, Ibero American Association, Mexico City
2018 CalArts: Pioneering Radical Arts Education , 22nd Festival de Cine de Lima, Perú
2016 Visually Speaking: Non-Fiction Poetics, Panel with Lourdes Portillo, Bassma Al-sharif, presented by of
The Flaherty Seminar (moderator) , IDA International Documentary Conference, LA
2014 Improvisation & Experimentation in Teaching Narrative Cinema Forms Chapman University
2011 The L.A. Rebellion (seminar) , CalArts, UCLA Film & TV Archive + Getty’s Pacific Standard Time 1945-1985
2007 Aesthetics of Digital Narratives, University of Southern California
T E A C H I N G / A C A D E M I C E X P E R I E N C E
2019-2024 Dean, CalArts School of Film/Video, Valencia, California
2009-present Faculty, Film Directing Program, CalArts School of Film/Video (sabbatical 2024-2025)
2005-2009Special Faculty, Program in Film and Video, CalArts School of Film/Video
2006 Lecturer, Visual Arts Department, University of California, San Diego
E D U C A T I O N
MFA UCLA — School of Theater, Film + Digital Media
BA Hampshire College — Cultural Studies, Latin American focus
