FILMMAKING
Kira Akerman is an award winning documentary filmmaker. Her debut feature film Hollow Tree won a Jury Prize at the New Orleans Film Festival, and an award for Best Documentary at Chicago’s International Children’s Festival. Her essay, Filmmaking as a Classroom: A Documentary Practice for the Climate Crisis, appeared in Southern Cultures and describes Kira’s filmmaking process. Hollow Tree has been supported by the International Documentary Association, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Sundance Institute, among others. Kira was selected for the 2019 PBS Wyncote Fellowship, the 2019 Sundance Talent Forum Fellowship, the 2020 Gotham Documentary Lab, and the 2021 Climate Story Lab. Previously, Kira’s short “Station 15” (PBS) screened as part of a Smithsonian exhibit across Louisiana, at The Climate Museum, DocNYC, Imagine Science Film Fest, Sheffield Doc Fest, and others. Kira’s other short films have been featured in “The Atlantic,” The Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane University, the Ford Foundation Gallery, the Camden International Film Festival, MOMA, the Rotterdam Film Festival, and Clermont-Ferrand.
TEACHING, CONSULTING, & SPEAKING
Kira is an educator and educational consultant. She often works with Ripple Effect, a water literacy educational nonprofit, and Tulane University’s Center for the Gulf South, an interdisciplinary, place-based institute that promotes the understanding of New Orleans and the Gulf South region. She teaches documentary filmmaking, speaks, and offers workshops on the intersection of climate change, science, and storytelling. Many of Hollow Tree’s screenings include accompanying learning experiences for audiences. These have been created in partnership with the Climate Museum, Columbia’s Climate School, the Museum of the Moving Image, the University of Mississippi, and the Small Center at Tulane University. Kira has a masters in Learning, Innovation, Technology, and Design from Harvard University, and is currently a fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Studies at Harvard University.
Contact: kiraperry8@gmail.com