Emily Packer
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Video
Emily Packer (she/they) is an experimental filmmaker and editor with an interest in border culture and geography. They were a fellow in the 2018 Collaborative Studio at UnionDocs in Brooklyn and is a proud alumna of Hampshire College where she now teaches digital editing. Her directorial work has been screened across the country, including at Anthology Film Archives, BlackStar Film Festival, DOCNYC, and others including a three-day border art event that she organized in San Diego-Tijuana called “Arte on the Line.” Emily’s short film By Way of Canarsie, which she co-directed with Lelsey Steele, was a part of the inaugural Dedza short film collection, Who Will Start Another Fire, and is now available to stream on the Criterion Channel. They are currently finishing a feature length hybrid film about oysters as queer environmental heroes in New York City, called Holding Back the Tide, which is supported by Wave Farm and the Sundance Institute, as well as a collaborative creative team interested in collectivism onscreen and behind the camera. As an editor, Emily recently cut two feature films, including the forthcoming Summer Solstice, an interpersonal trans drama set in upstate New York, and Sound Spring, an experimental anthology film about residents’ historical entanglements with Yellow Springs, Ohio. Other notable short projects include the award-winning ITVS film When I’m Her about a gender-bending ballet teacher, and the New Yorker piece The Victorias, which focuses on historicized performance and labor rights at The Tenement Museum. In addition to her editing and directing work, Emily serves on programming committees for film festivals in New York City and guest curated the Coastal Knowledge series for the Rockaway Film Festival in 2021. Emily collects voicemails for future use—consider yourself notified.
Recent and Upcoming Courses
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This course will introduce a variety of editing styles and technical skills to new editors working in nonfiction, fiction, and hybrid forms of video and other time-based media. Emphasis will be on creative problem solving within effective post-production workflows across softwares, with tutorials for basic sound design, color correction, and media management. Students will participate in collaborative in-class editing challenges working with archival material, documentary verite, interviews, narrative scenes, and others in conjunction with discussing relevant written material and screenings. Over the course of the semester, students will pitch and complete three short independent projects. This course is designed to give students confidence in a personal editing practice that will also enhance their abilities to direct, communicate with collaborators, and consider the post-production process as they approach production for future multimedia works. Keywords:Post production, edit, digital media, filmmaking, video