Almost Visible
2019
Almost Visible is a documentary short film that tells the story of an unlikely 25-year friendship between American ethnobotanist Kathleen Harrison and an indigenous Mazatec Shaman and his family in the mountains of Southern Mexico. What began as fieldwork, became a deep entanglement of two families—different, but connected—witnessing an era of change and cultural upheaval. Learn more about this project here.
Directed by Klea McKenna / Edited by Dana Laman. Made in collaboration with Kathleen Harrison and the Andrade family.
This film is a project of Botanical Dimensions.
In The Make
Documentary Shorts About Fellow Artists
2011 - 2015
From 2011-2015 my collaborator Nikki Grattan and I operated the online arts journal IN THE MAKE. During that time we documented over 120 studio visits and interviews with West Coast artists. Occasionally we made short films about the artists we visited, which you can view via the links below.
Founded in early 2011 with writer Nikki Grattan, IN THE MAKE was an online arts journal offering an intimate look at contemporary art practice on the West Coast. Over the course of 4 years we visited 123 artists. Through visiting artists in their studios we learned about each artist’s space, process, influences, and the behind-the-scenes elements that are often unseen in a gallery or museum setting. We documented and published these visits with the hope of revealing both the richness and the daily realities of creative work. Our aim has been to raise interest in art practice, while simultaneously debunking the romantic myth of the artist. We recognize that creative work is real work, done by real, passionate people in all sorts of different spaces. We are not art critics, but rather deeply curious observers; looking for the ways that each artist’s aesthetic pervades their environment and reveals their perspective.
Maja Ruznic
Job & Boss
Asad Faulwell
Heather Wilcoxon
Storm Tharpe
Berkeley Art Museum’s “The Possible”
Crew:
Cinematography: Klea McKenna
Interviews: Nikki Grattan
Video & Audio Editing: Dana Laman