Shari Rothfarb Mekonen

Professor and award-winning filmmaker Shari Rothfarb Mekonen is Deputy Chair of BMCC’s Media Arts and Technology Department. She teaches VAT 171: Remote Production/Video Editing I, VAT 271: Remote Production/Video Editing II and MES 153: Scriptwriting at BMCC, and produces her own film projects.
These include the documentary 400 MILES TO FREEDOM, a 2012 documentary that received positive reviews in City Arts, New York’s Review of Culture, IndieWire, and other publications; premiered at the NY Jewish Film Festival, Lincoln Center; and has screened at numerous international festivals and other venues including the Africa World Documentary Film Festival and the Toronto, San Francisco, Zagreb, Miami, Palm Beach, and Jerusalem Jewish Film Festivals. 400 MILES TO FREEDOM received a Platinum REMI Award at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, and is distributed by 7th Art Releasing.
Professor Mekonen is also the director of the short films FUR (Filmmaker Magazine Audience Award, and Best Director Award, Columbia Film Festival, Director’sGuild of America) and OCEAN AVENUE (Best Film Award, Columbia Film Festival, Director’s Guild of America), featured in numerous international festivals including the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival, Alcala Shorts Film Festival, Spain, Athens International Film Festival, Palm Springs International Shorts Film Festival and Women in the Director’s Chair. Her art and video work has been featured in the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Jewish Museum, NY, and other museums and galleries in the U.S. and in Europe. Professor Mekonen is currently completing THE SEA IS MY BROTHER, a 12-hour documentary, and is in production on HEROES (working title), a feature length documentary.
She attended the Whitney Independent Study Program and holds a B.F.A. in Fine Art from Cooper Union and an M.F.A. with honors in Film from Columbia University.