Lorna Ann Johnson-Frizell
Lorna has been making films for close to 20 years using Super 8, 16mm film and digital video. Her work is rooted in her experiences as an immigrant, African American woman, and a mother. Whether making a documentary, experimental or narrative piece, she begins by collecting information through interviews, articles or audiotapes. In examining the collected material, she usually finds a path to the story that is waiting to be told. Growing up watching Hollywood movies in Jamaica, she immigrated to the US as a child and she encountered an America that was unlike the one she had seen on television. The America she had immigrated to was segregated and poor. She sees making the disconnect between lived reality and the idealized world created by Hollywood imagery visible as a guiding principle of her work. Lorna believes that images are powerful in their ability to shape our consciousness. Her films and videos question the images we consume as a society- imagery about America and other cultures. This work strives to provide a more honest perspectives of the lives of women, in particular, poor and working class women of color. Her films examine the lives of incarcerated women, the impact of media images on women, domestic violence and war. She has presented her work at Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University, George Washington University and at film festivals festivals including the Montreal Human Rights Film Festival. She was awarded a Jury Prize at the 5@5 section at the Mill Valley Film Festival. More information about of her work can be found at her website.
Awarded Grants
2012
Leeway Transformation Award (LTA)
Overview
Lorna has been making films for close to 20 years using Super 8, 16mm film and digital video. Her work is rooted in her experiences as an immigrant, African American woman, and a mother. Whether making a documentary, experimental or narrative piece, she begins by collecting information through interviews, articles or audiotapes. In examining the collected material, she usually finds a path to the story that is waiting to be told. Growing up watching Hollywood movies in Jamaica, she immigrated to the US as a child and she encountered an America that was unlike the one she had seen on television. The America she had immigrated to was segregated and poor. She sees making the disconnect between lived reality and the idealized world created by Hollywood imagery visible as a guiding principle of her work. Lorna believes that images are powerful in their ability to shape our consciousness. Her films and videos question the images we consume as a society- imagery about America and other cultures. This work strives to provide a more honest perspectives of the lives of women, in particular, poor and working class women of color. Her films examine the lives of incarcerated women, the impact of media images on women, domestic violence and war. She has presented her work at Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University, George Washington University and at film festivals festivals including the Montreal Human Rights Film Festival. She was awarded a Jury Prize at the 5@5 section at the Mill Valley Film Festival. More information about of her work can be found at her website.
