Talena Sanders

"I am an artist and filmmaker who creates experimental documentary films that reflect the wild complexity and strange poetry of lived experience. Expanding and challenging mainstream documentary conventions is at the center of my work. I like gaps and mystery and opening up more questions than giving easy answers. Sometimes my work is about my own experiences, sometimes it’s about artists and people I admire—trailblazing women and queer people.

My work is collage-like, weaving together materials from many different sources and angles. I record on 16mm most often, in part for the way that material destabilizes a viewer’s sense of time, blurring the line between found footage and what is contemporary. I am proud to be a film educator, serving as Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Sonoma State University.

" -T.S.