Meredith Zielke

Director / DP

Meredith Zielke is a Chicago-based Director and Cinematographer from Detroit, Michigan. She has an MFA in Film, Video and New Media from SAIC, a BA in Film and Video Production from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Film Production Certificate from New York University. Her documentary films have screened at festivals and galleries all over the world including the Whitney Biennial, MCA Chicago, Mosen Gallery (Tehran), New Media Festival (Seoul), MMX Open Art (Berlin), The Nunnery Gallery (London), Aspekty Festival (Torun), Planète Honnête (Luberon), Musée McCord (Québec), FIFEQ (Québec), and SLAFF (Sydney).

She has shot films on-location in Mexico, Ecuador, Israel, and Poland, and traveled to Ireland for an Artist Residency in Photography at Burren College of Art. Her films have been awarded honors, grants, prizes, and fellowships from international institutions including The Telly Awards, The Ginsberg Center, George Washington University, the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust, Fractured Atlas, and ArtPrize.

Meredith has investigated subjects such as collective memory and body identity in Crypto-Judaic history (The Jettisoned), the effective process of dialogue in confronting the Israel/Palestine conflict (Zeitouna), prismatic notions of body in Ecuador (La Curación), nautical illustrations of Restless Leg Syndrome (Jib Halyard), alternatives in public education (Our School), urban decay and nostalgia in Post-Fordist Detroit (Ruin of a City), and the dual perception of Asian women (Eyes Without a Face).

The Jettisoned is currently touring worldwide, and La Curación is touring across South America with Cinema Social Club. Meredith is currently teaching Social Documentary at Marwen and Audio Documentary at Sullivan High School, and Producing videos for SocialScope Productions' ongoing documentary webseries 50 Faggots. Meredith's upcoming projects include traveling to Egypt to complete principal photography for Voices and Faces of the Adhan: Cairo, a documentary feature about the 1400-year-old oral tradition of the Muslim call to prayer, produced by On Look Films. She and filmmaker Yoni Goldstein run a documentary production company called Standing Point Films, based in Chicago.

standingpoint.org