Julia Yezbick 2023 24 min USA
Letters to a maternal ancestor reflect on identity connected to ethnic heritage, while also embracing a broader notion of family beyond bloodlines. Weaving images and sounds from the filmmaker’s personal ties to two cities—Detroit and Beirut—the film poses the central question: How do we belong to each other?
Julia Yezbick (b.1980) is a filmmaker, artist, and anthropologist. She received her PhD in Media Anthropology and Critical Media Practice from Harvard University and an MA in Visual Anthropology from the University of Manchester. Yezbick’s creative practice is primarily one of experimental nonfiction addressing topics of labor, movement and the body, feminism, and social commentary on issues ranging from ethnicity and gender to housing and urban transformations. Her work uses film, video, audio, writing, and installation, and has been exhibited at various international festivals and venues including the Berlin International Film Festival, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the New York Library for Performing Arts, Station Arts Space (Beirut), the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Broad Underground Film series (Lansing), the AgX Film Collective (Boston), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, and the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Yezbick lives and works in Detroit where she co-directs Mothlight Microcinema and is an Asst Prof of Media Arts and Studies at Wayne State University.