Shannon Walsh Filmmaker
Vancouver, British Columbia
Video by Rami Katz

Shannon Walsh is a filmmaker and an interdisciplinary scholar. She has written and directed five feature documentaries on topics ranging from labour rights to grief and climate change. Her work is known for emphasizing marginalized voices and stories on the front lines of vital contemporary issues. Walsh’s films have been theatrically released internationally and broadcast on networks such as ARTE, Al-Jazeera, CBC, and Netflix. Her work has been screened in festivals globally such as Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, IDFA, Doc NYC, as well as in museums such as the Pompidou Centre, in Paris. As a scholar, she has published works on inequality, social justice, and visual methods. She teaches film as an associate professor at the University of British Columbia and is a Research Associate at the South African Research Chair in Social Change at the University of Johannesburg. Walsh is a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.   

Shannon Walsh’s website

“Her work shows exceptional reach around some of the most urgent and pressing issues of our time, engaging the public in robust debate and bringing together artists, academics, practitioners, activists and community members. [...] Walsh explore[s] collaboration and collective learning as a formal method of creating work in front of, and behind, the camera.” 

Nominator: Stephen Heatley, Professor and Department Head, Theatre and Film, University of British Columbia 

“Her work shows exceptional reach around some of the most urgent and pressing issues of our time.”

Selected works

Some members of a group carry large protest signs. One reads, "We want toilet and water." Roofs of houses are seen behind them.
The sky is filled with smoke and steam rising from the silver stacks of a refining plant. Large cranes sit at the edge of a body of water.
A young man in front of a boxing ring wraps his hands. The walls behind him are hung with t-shirts and photographs of athletes.
A man in a sleeveless shirt, blue ballcap and sunglasses looks over his shoulder as he stands or walks on a downtown street.
A man in a dimly lit room raises his right fist and appears to speak. Others behind him also have raised fists.
A person, silhouetted against a window, looks out across parking lots and wooded areas to a large body of water. Soft clouds fill the sky.
People in white hazmat suits work while standing at a table under trees. Caution tape is stretched across the foreground.
Young men stand shoulder to shoulder, wearing light blue helmets with visors and matching jerseys. They appear to be apprehensive.
A woman rides a bicycle with an "Uber Eats" carrier past a gated house. She wears earrings, rain pants and a long-sleeved pullover shirt.
Text reading "this phantom pain" is superimposed on an upside-down image of a rocky beach with dark mountains in the background.
Three young girls stand barefoot in a spotlight on a red carpet. They wear gold suits with wings and hold small telescopes up to their eyes.

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