Alicia K. Harris is a Scarborough, Ontario, Canada-based film director and screenwriter.[1] She attracted critical acclaim for her 2019 short film Pick, which won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short Drama at the 8th Canadian Screen Awards in 2020.[2]
Alicia K. Harris | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation | Filmmaker |
| Website | https://www.aliciakharris.com/ |
Early life and education
editHarris graduated from the Ryerson's School of Image Arts.[3] She is a graduate of the film program at Toronto Metropolitan University[4] and alumna of the Canadian Academy's Directing Program for Women.
Career
editHarris wrote and directed her first short film, Fatherhood, in 2014, and won a local filmmaking award at the Scarborough Worldwide Film Festival.[1] She followed up with the short films All Things But Forget (2015), Love Stinks (2016), and Maybe If It Were a Nice Room (2017), and has directed episodes of the Canadian television series Lockdown, The Parker Andersons, and Amelia Parker.[5]
In 2018, she was one of eight women filmmakers selected for the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television's Apprenticeship for Women Directors program, alongside Kathleen Hepburn, Kirsten Carthew, Allison White, Asia Youngman, Tiffany Hsiung, Halima Ouardiri, and Kristina Wagenbauer.[6]
Her 2019 short film Pick won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short Drama at the 8th Canadian Screen Awards in 2020.[2]
For the 2020 Polaris Music Prize, which followed a unique format of commissioning filmmakers to make short films inspired by the shortlisted albums due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada preventing the staging of a traditional gala, Harris created a film based on Jessie Reyez's album Before Love Came to Kill Us.[7]
In 2021, Harris directed Blackberries, a short film written by Canadian screenwriter Miali-Elise Coley-Sudlovenick, for CBC Gem and Obsidian Theatre's 21 Black Futures project.[8]
The music video for Savannah Ré's single "Solid", which Harris directed, was a nominee for the 2021 Prism Prize.[9] She received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Direction in a Web Program or Series at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022, for the web series Next Stop.[10]
Harris co-founded the boutique production company, Sugar Glass Films.[3]
References
edit- ^ a b Mike Adler, "With PICK, Scarborough filmmaker shows a choice black girls face". Toronto.com, November 15, 2019.
- ^ a b Brent Furdyk, "Canadian Screen Awards Announces Winners In Cinematic Arts Categories, Honouring The Year’s Best Movies". Entertainment Tonight Canada, May 28, 2020.
- ^ a b McCallum, Selina (2020-06-18). "The underdog for the underrepresented — Meet Scarborough's own award-winning director Alicia K. Harris". Toronto Caribbean Newspaper. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
- ^ Selina McCallum, "The underdog for the underrepresented — Meet Scarborough’s own award-winning director Alicia K. Harris". Toronto Caribbean, June 18, 2020.
- ^ Radheyan Simonpillai, "How an all-BIPOC Canadian team made a TV show for a Mormon network in the U.S.". Now, April 5, 2021.
- ^ Lauren Malyk, "Canadian Academy selects eight for second annual mentorship program". Playback, August 20, 2018.
- ^ Richard Trapunski, "Polaris Music Prize 2020: Backxwash’s victory is for the unapologetic" Archived 2021-07-16 at the Wayback Machine. Now, October 20, 2020.
- ^ Kelly Townsend, "How 21 Black Futures merged the stage and screen". Playback, February 12, 2021.
- ^ Brock Thiessen, "Here Are the Top 20 Canadian Music Videos Nominated for the 2021 Prism Prize". Exclaim!, April 29, 2021.
- ^ Brent Furdyk, "2022 Canadian Screen Award Nominees Announced, ‘Sort Of’ & ‘Scarborough’ Lead The Pack". ET Canada, February 15, 2022.