ABOUT THE FOUNDER

ALEXANDRA HALKIN
FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

In 1998, Alexandra founded the Chiapas Media Project (CMP) an award winning bi-national organization that trained over 200 indigenous men and women in video production in Chiapas and Guerrero, Mexico. Alexandra has consulted with various organizations such as Witness, and CLACPI (Latin American Coordinator for Indigenous Film and Communication). CMP collaboratively produced 32 indigenous and non-indigenous documentaries for international distribution, (from Chiapas, Veracruz, Guerrero, and Chihuahua.) CMP videos have participated in over 120 International Film Festivals in 20 countries. In 2005, CMP was awarded the Reebok Human Rights Award for its work in Guerrero, Mexico.

In 2004, Alexandra was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for the Latin American Indigenous Video Initiative (LAIVI) and, in 2007,  a Fulbright Scholarship for the Indigenous Audiovisual Archive (IAA) in Oaxaca, Mexico. During this time she also produced five short documentaries in collaboration with Mexican human rights organizations - some winning international awards. Festival screenings include Morelia International Film Festival; Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival, New York; Sundance Film Festival; International Human Rights Film Festival, Buenos Aires and the First Peoples Film Festival, Montreal.

Alexandra has written and co-authored articles for the LASA Forum, NACLA, National Museum of the American Indian Magazine and OnCuba News. Her chapter Outside the Indigenous Lens: Zapatistas and Autonomous Videomaking published in the book Global Indigenous Media, Duke Press, 2008 has been translated and re-published in Spanish and Turkish.

In 2010, Alexandra founded Americas Media Initiative (AMI) a non-profit organization working with Cuban filmmakers living in Cuba. Alexandra has organized four Closing Distances/Cerrando Distancias Documentary Programs that have brought U.S. documentaries, filmmakers and programmers to audiences in 14 towns throughout Cuba. In 2013 Alexandra co-curated the New Cuban Shorts Program, part of the Documentary Fortnight Series at the MoMA in New York. In 2019 Alexandra organized the year-long Cuban Visions film series, in Chicago. 

Alexandra is a co-founder in 2021 of CEPAAC (Center for the Preservation of Community Audiovisual Archives / Centro de preservación de archivos audiovisuales comunitarios) in the ProMedios office in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. She is co-director on a production team currently developing the feature documentary, IF WE FILM IT, IT’S THE TRUTH based on the CEPAAC video archive.

Alexandra has been awarded artist residencies at Headlands (2019), MacDowell (2023) and Bogliasco (2023).