Bio
Mike Elsherif is an award-winning filmmaker whose films have been screened at national and international film festivals, including Sundance, El Gouna, and Cucalorus. He was recently awarded the Islamic Scholarship Fund's inaugural Shireen Abu Akleh Memorial Award. He also received the Sunbird Stories Production Award by FilmLab Palestine and Cinephilia Productions and the 40 Under 40 Prize by the Arab America Foundation. He's been a Rawi Fellow at the Rawi Screenwriters Lab in Jordan held by the Royal Film Commission, an Al Smith Fellow selected by the Kentucky Arts Council, Fund for the Art's ArtsMatch recipient, a Writer-in-Residence at The New Harmony Project, a COLLIDER Artist-in-Residence through the Louisville Free Public Library, and an Artist-in-Residence at Bernheim Forest and Arboretum. Mike is a graduate of the University of North Carolina - School of the Arts School of Filmmaking with a concentration in Film Directing.
Mike served as a film instructor for several years at the summer session film program at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts - School of Filmmaking. There, he taught high school-age students about screenwriting and directing, while also guiding them on set during the production of their short films. Additionally, he was a playwriting and filmmaking instructor at the Young Writers Workshop at Manual High School, where he taught students playwriting, screenwriting, directing, and editing during the summer program. Beyond his experience as an art instructor, he also taught social studies at Blue Lick Elementary School.
Potential Residency Project
During the residency, it is essential to educate and demystify students about the filmmaking process. While making a film can become a very expensive endeavor, many film movements throughout history have creatively sidestepped financial constraints by focusing on story and technique. Removing the financial and technical hurdles that stand in their way is important to allowing more people to engage and express themselves with the medium.
The best way to understand filmmaking is by simply making a film. For a potential residency project, I would lead students through the entire process from development to pre-production, post-production, and distribution. This would be a long-term project that would help students understand the process from start to finish.
For one of my workshops, I want to instruct students on constructing a zoetrope. From a film history perspective, zoetropes were one of the earliest non-film devices that produced the illusion of movement by displaying a sequence of drawings. This would be a fun and educational workshop that would be prefaced with a brief history of the zoetrope and its technique. I believe younger participants would especially enjoy this workshop.
Students would also enjoy a workshop on improvisational theater. As a director, I often used improv while working on film projects. It is indispensable for crafting more realistic and nuanced dialogue with actors. I would love to lead an improv workshop that includes its history in theater and its application in film.
Residency ideas can be adapted for different ages, grade levels, and accessibility. Strategies I plan on utilizing to engage students in the creative process during the residency include: Implementing hands-on workshops that encourage experimentation and self-expression, providing opportunities for collaboration on group projects that foster teamwork and creative brainstorming, and encouraging student-led discussions and critiques to help them articulate their thoughts and learn from peers.