Filmmakers

Mariah Dunn Kramer is a documentary filmmaker and educator whose work focuses on personal stories, cultural identity, and the experiences that connect people across communities. She is currently Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Cinema and Media Arts at Vanderbilt University. Her films have screened at festivals around the country, including the Cucalorus Film Festival, BendFilm Festival, and Portland Oregon Women’s Film Festival. She is also a co-founder and board member of the UpTilt Film Festival, which supports women and gender-nonconforming filmmakers.

Kramer directed and edited This Is My Home Now (2015), streaming on Folkstreams. The documentary follows four young people from Montagnard refugee families from Southeast Asia as they build new lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, while negotiating questions of family, faith, cultural heritage, and American identity. The film was broadcast on PBS and the WORLD Channel and received recognition at the Southeastern Museums Conference and Longleaf Film Festival.

Kramer’s work as a filmmaker is closely connected to her teaching. She has often involved young people in the filmmaking process, using documentary as a way for communities to participate in telling their own stories.