Shannon Walsh is a Canadian filmmaker, writer and scholar. She has directed the feature documentaries The Gig Is Up, H2Oil ,À St-Henri, le 26 août, Jeppe on a Friday and Illusions of Control. She has also directed music videos for the Montreal based artist Little Scream.
Walsh, who was born in London, Ontario, is also an academic, and teaches film production at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Theatre and Film. She is the co-editor of the books Ties that Bind: Race and the Politics of Friendship in South Africa, and In My Life: Stories from activists in South Africa 2002-2022. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2020 and awarded a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2023.
Filmography
Feature films
2009: H2Oil (feature documentary) 2011: A St-Henri le 26 Aout (feature documentary) 2013: Jeppe on a Friday (feature documentary) made with Arya Lalloo 2019: Illusions of Control (feature documentary) 2021: The Gig Is Up (feature documentary)
Short films
2002: Revisit (experimental fiction) directed with Rawi Hage
2003: Sayeh (medium-length documentary) directed with Kaveh Nabatian and Nicolas Rutigliano 2003: Fire & Hope (documentary) 2004: Close-Up (experimental) 2006: Inkani (documentary) with Heinrich Bohmke 2007: The Space In Between (short fiction) starring Rich Terfry and Elizabeth Powell 2012: Niger Delta Remix: Last Rights Niger Delta (video installation for the Johannesburg Workshop on Theory and Criticism) 2014: Under the Umbrella (documentary) 2018: Disappearance: Hong Kong Stories (360 VR documentary) 2019: Matsutake Hunters (documentary) 2022: This Phantom Pain, Letter #1 (experimental short) 2022: In Relation, Letter #2 (experimental short)
Bibliography
Edited books
Ties That Bind: Race and the Politics of Friendship in South Africa with Jon Soske (Wits University Press/New York University Press, 2016) In My Life: Stories from Young Activists in South Africa 2002-2022 with Claudia Mitchell and Mandla Oliphant (Jacana Media, 2022)
Screenplays
2014: Man Bitch adaptation of novella by Johan van Wyk
2018: Unidentified Minor''
Awards
Awarded the 2023 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts for Artistic Achievement.
Film awards
Other Awards
2003 - Power Corp Fellowship, Concordia University
2003 - Fonds Québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC) MA fellowship 2003 - CIDA Awards for Canadians 2005 - Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canadian Graduate Research Scholarship (PhD) 2007 - Young Researcher Award, SANPAD Poverty Conference, Durban, South Africa 2009 - Trudeau Foundation Scholarship, Finalist 2011 - Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Post-Doctoral Fellowship 2017 - Leading Scholar, Green College, University of British Columbia 2018 - Wall Scholar, Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies 2020 - Guggenheim Fellowship