Kirsten D’Andrea Hollander (she/her) is a full-time professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art (足球游戏_中国足彩网￥体育资讯), where she directs the MFA Filmmaking program.
Kirsten D'Andrea Hollander '88 (Painting BFA) focused solely on creative expression through painting until attending the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1987. There she studied with Agnes Martin, a renowned abstract painter whose work exudes a deep inner silence. Ms. Martin had just begun experimenting with film and for Kirsten the seed was planted. Kirsten later turned to documentary storytelling after earning an MFA in Imaging and Digital Arts from University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in 1997. Maya Angleo's quote, there is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you, has provided sustenance for the collaborative documentary projects that have unfolded on Kirsten's path.
As a college professor for the past thirty-six years, Kirsten has witnessed profound educational contributions as well as shortcomings regarding integrated curriculum and financial support for students from underserved circumstances. In response, Kirsten launched the ‘Wings Video Skills Program for Girls’ in 2008 which resulted in the Anatomy of Wings documentary fourteen years later. Kirsten co-directed this film with youth mentor and author Nikea Redmond. The young women who appear in the film used donated camcorders to help document their own growing-up on screen from middle school to their twenties. Anatomy of Wings screened with Slamdance in 2021, won best feature-length documentary awards across the US and has screened internationally.
Kirsten’s first feature length film, Us, Naked: Trixie & Monkey was selected for an Independent Filmmaker Project Fellowship (now known as The Gotham) in 2010. This award winning film about the rigors of the artist’s journey premiered with DOC NYC in 2014 and is currently in international distribution.
Kirsten is currently completing a new feature documentary, Come Rest Here, about beloved poet, painter and puppeteer Lindsay Abromatis-Smith. A performer in NYC until she was diagnosed with ALS in 2012, Lindsay continues to make art and perform from the delicate universe of her bedroom as the seasons change outside her window. Relying on others as she no longer has the use of her hands, Lindsay also advocates for her right to spend the rest of her life at home despite the rules and regulations of the the US Health Care System. Come Rest Here is slated for completion in 2026.