About
Anelisa Garfunkel
Anelisa is an independent filmmaker, educator, and adventurer. Her work and travels have taken her around the world. She has sailed throughout the Atlantic and the Caribbean, been cliff diving in Greece, Heli-skiing in New Zealand and made movies in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. To date, she has produced, written, directed, and edited a multitude of documentaries, short films, educational videos, and advocacy pieces. She has also taught film, video, writing, producing, and editing to students of all ages for nearly a decade. Her experience as a filmmaker began in the Federated States of Micronesia. As the in-house filmmaker for Micronesian Seminar (MicSem), a local non-profit, she wrote, produced, directed, and edited over fifteen educational films about the pressing socio-economic issues of the region. The films have been broadcast throughout Micronesia and the South Pacific.
After returning back to the States to continue her career, Anelisa set about producing one of the most challenging films of her young career. In 2007, Anelisa completed work on a personal documentary film, One Hundred Steps. This film is about her father’s struggle after a debilitating injury left him a quadriplegic. The film is both a social commentary on healthcare and disability, and the personal story of her family’s pain, despair, and ultimately hope after this life-altering accident. Her father’s accident was preceded, ironically, by over thirty years as an advocate, scholar, and champion of the Disability Rights Movement. It was his life’s work and he passed it on to his children with passion and purpose. One Hundred Steps is the union of the lessons of Anelisa’s childhood and the work and passion of her adulthood.
Today she freelances as a producer and director. In the past few years she has produced for Lone Wolf Films on History Channel and National Geographic documentaries. In the independent arena, her second fictional short, Long Way UP, is nearly completed and she is set to direct her first feature this year in Alabama. She continues to teach an intensive all-encompassing filmmaking workshop at the Maine Media Workshops.