Andrea Sisson

(b. 1987 in Cincinnati, Ohio) has lived and worked in Los Angeles, CA, and in 2021, moved to New York City.

Sisson is a filmmaker, interdisciplinary artist, and scholar whose work bridges independent narrative and experimental documentary, social practice, and psychoanalytic inquiry. A Fulbright Fellow, Sisson holds an MFA from Bard College and an MSW focused on psychodynamic study. Sisson’s film projects move between narrative invention and experimental documentary, exploring systems of memory and the limits of perception. Working across image, sound, and text, Sisson treats filmmaking as a social and philosophical tool. Her films often merge the personal and the structural, using poetic form and hybrid storytelling to explore the thresholds between visibility and erasure. Her award-winning feature films have screened internationally and received recognition from The New York Times, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”

Sisson’s film catalogue includes independent and microbudget feature films, experimental documentary, and avant garde cinema. Sisson is often involved in many pieces of the process - development/research, writing/directing, producing, creatively crafting/editing, sound, and the whole of what she calls “creative services.” Sisson has also collaborated on and produced other filmmaker’s projects - editing, sound, directing, and creative producing/dramaturgy. Sisson’s contemporary art practice runs complementary to her filmmaking practice as a complement, branching into deconstructed narratives, participatory artworks and social projects, hybrid forms of writing and essay, photography, and collaborations in performance. Sisson’s inquiry is into forms of narrative and storytelling as it reflects the human need to make sense of the world around them. The content of Sisson’s work is what weaves throughout - the human experience, institutional and social critique, and an ethos of play.

Sisson channels all of her experiences into an investment in the growth of her community as a facilitator and educator. She is a professor of film at FIT in the Film, Media, and Performing Arts department since 2023, supervises social practice and public artworks, facilitates community projects, mentors, and collaborates in her community. Sisson has facilitated projects that bridge the arts and the social in non-conventional and boundary-pushing ways. Mentor Yazan Khalil, from Sisson’s Master of Fine Arts board, once said, “for Sisson, “community IS material.”

Rounding out her practice, Sisson is an interdisciplinary scholar. Sisson earned a Masters of Fine Art from Bard College, is a Fulbright Scholar, and most recently completed her Masters of Social Work in 2025, focusing on psychoanalytic study. Sisson’s second masters, has deepened the under-pinnings of her film and creative work through research. The degree also makes Sisson a licensed clinical social worker, allowing her to work with a select pool of clients. Sisson approaches this clinical work as an artist, combining a psychoanalytic foundation with an enlightening, curious, and creative mentoring perspective. 

 


Project History, Exhibitions, Press

In her most notable works, Sisson has collaborated with actress Julia Garner, Ryan Heffington (Sia’s choreographer), artist Fia Backström, musical act Amiia, director Pete Ohs, 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 from Ozark (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. 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.