Emilie Upczak

Emilie Upczak’s films are grounded in realism and hybridity, where she weaves together fiction and nonfiction, starting with real-life accounts and true stories, which are then reimagined to capture emotional truths and foster empathy for people and place. She collaborates with both professional actors and non-actors and is committed to working closely with members of the communities featured in her films. Emilie works to elevate female-driven stories, ensuring that women are represented on both sides of the camera and her projects include a diverse range of narrative, experimental, and documentary feature and short films, public video projections, and digital exhibitions.

Now an award-winning filmmaker, a Rotterdam Producers Lab alumnus and an Andy Warhol Foundation grant recipient, she began her filmmaking career while living in Trinidad and Tobago for a decade, where she served as Creative Director for the trinidad+tobago film festival. In 2017, she released her debut narrative feature, Moving Parts, which tackles human smuggling and sex trafficking in the capital city, Port of Spain. 

Emilie is currently developing her second feature, Life Without End, an eco-drama set in the near future on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. She released a proof of concept called Silt (2022) which premiered at the Independent Film Festival Boston and won the Special Jury Award. It has since played at festivals such as Chicago Underground, Charlotte, Hawaii, Denver, Dallas, Santa Fe, and the Mother Tongue Film Festival at the Smithsonian.