Andrea Sisson

Experimental filmmaker, interdisciplinary artist, and scholar whose work bridges experimental documentary and independent narrative film, the conceptual art and performance worlds, and psychoanalytic inquiry. (b. 1987 in Cincinnati, Ohio) has lived and worked in Los Angeles, CA, and in 2021, relocated to New York City).

 
 
 


Extended History

Sisson has collaborated and made works with actors Julia Garner and Joseph Cross, dramaturgy for playwright Amanda Horowitz, choreographer Ryan Heffington (Sia), director Pete Ohs, artist Fia Backström, and musicians Amiina, Sam Amidon, Slow Club, Greenhouse Studios Iceland, EMI Records, Music NOW festival, and has been reviewed by the New York Times and notable film industry publications. Sisson’s work has been shown at São Paulo Museum of Image and Sound, broadcasted on SFE ART TV at Palais de Tokyo in Paris and on European public television stations, PAM Los Angeles, Los Angeles Contemporary Archive, S1 Portland, Swapmeet at Andrea Zittel’s High Desert Test Sites, Poetic Research Bureau Los Angeles, the Contemporary Art Center Cincinnati, and several film festivals including Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival. Sisson has been a visiting artist at Carnegie Mellon School of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Maryland Institute College of Art, and the University of Cincinnati. Sisson has been a resident at PAM Residencies Los Angeles, Alternative Worksite in Roanoke, VA, and S1 Portland. Additionally, she has worked and volunteered with the Los Angeles Artists Census and artist-run therapy groups. Sisson also co-founded and ran a small film studio for five years (Lauren-Edward, 2012-2017) as a producer, director, and maker on widely-seen projects. The studio designed their own unconventional filmmaking process and collaborated on films, including the feature film, Everything Beautiful Is Far Away (2017), staring Julia Garner (Ozark, Weapons), Joseph Cross (Running with Scissors), C. S. Lee (Dexter), and with music by Neon Indian (L-E).

Sisson began their career with a BA of Science in Design (2010) where they created a wearable instrument in a semi-synthesis, audio-design, performative-display (worn by Yuniya Edi Kown and Ethan Philbrick. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for art and with the fellowship, lived in Reykjavik, Iceland, authoring the feature-length, experimental documentary, I Send You This Place. The film poetically talks about perceptions of and systems around mental illness, and the process of grief/acceptance. Andrea wrote and performs, and with collaborator Pete Ohs co-created the imagery, soundscape, and soundtrack for the work. The film premiered at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, garnering a New York Times Review, and Sisson and collaborator were selected for ”Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film 2013.”

Sisson has made impactful short, feature, and experimental films, led conversations/lectures about artist labor and finances, worked with printers as performers, has staged participatory installations, and has brought discarded electronic objects back to life through sound. Please inquire for additional information including project documentation and further description.