Diné author, filmmaker Ramona Emerson returns to UNM Film & Digital Arts Department

Diné writer and filmmaker Ramona Emerson, a The University of New Mexico alumna, has joined the Film & Digital Arts Department as an assistant professor.

Originally from Tohatchi, N.M., Emerson received her degree in Media Arts in 1997 from UNM and her MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) in 2015 from the Institute of American Indian Arts. She has worked as a professional videographer, writer, and editor for over 20 years and is currently working on her eighth film project, Crossing the Line.

Among Emerson's film projects is And She Could Be Next presents: The Historic Election of Congresswoman Deb Haaland. The video offers an inside look at now-Secretary of the Interior Haaland, also a UNM alumna, during her run for Congress.

She published her first novel Shutter the first of a trilogy, with SOHO Press in 2022. Through her storytelling, Emerson looks at contemporary stories about her people and aims to question and redefine the expectations of Native cultural identity, highlighting stories that are not a part of mainstream media.

"My time at UNM was some of the hardest years of my life," Emerson recalled. "I was a poor student with few resources. I was the only woman majoring in film and a lot of the classes were filled with guys and not so nice critique time, but things have changed. And I want to make sure that students have my support.

"Dr. [Susan] Dever and Gus Blaisdell were the only two reasons I managed to get through the program and graduate. I hope to guide students in the same way and get them ready for the insanity that is the film industry… I figured it would be good to give back from the department it was when I graduated in 1997 and there were only two of us in that first class."

Emerson currently resides in Albuquerque, N.M. where she and her husband/producer, Kelly Byars run their production company Reel Indian Pictures. Emerson is a Sundance Native Lab Fellow, a Time-Warner Storyteller Fellow, a Tribeca All-Access Grantee, a PBS and ITVS grantee, and a WGBH Producer Fellow.

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