ABOUT COLLEEN KELLY POPLIN.

ARTIST STATEMENT.

Colleen Kelly Poplin is a documentary filmmaker and sound artist. Her work explores gender, religion, family, and the inextricable ties between them. Much of her recent documentary work draws from one of her creative obsessions: archival video. The Privileges and Responsibilities of Sisters uses sermons delivered between 1972 to 2014 to examine the perceptions of women held by Mormon religious leaders. Enjoy the Suffering reappropriates local evening news reports and bondage pornography to expose American rape culture and its effect on female sexuality. Her most recent project, Families Can Be Together Forever, follows her journey out of the Mormon church—a journey unexpectedly aligned with her first pregnancy. The piece examines the emotional and spiritual weight of leaving Mormonism, its effect on the mother she hopes to become, and its effect on the mother who raised her.
 
Colleen has studied sound design, documentary production, and feminist media theory throughout her life. She earned MA and MFA degrees in Media Art from Emerson College and a Bachelor of Science degree in Radio-Television-Film from The University of Texas at Austin.

​She currently resides in Boston with her husband and baby girl.

colleenita [@] gmail [dot] com

Around age eight, I started using my Fisher Price tape deck to create radio shows that discussed the issues of the day—pressing matters like what I had for dinner and who I had a crush on (Salvador Mendez). A handful of years later, I upgraded my work by sneaking into my mother’s closet to steal her VHS camcorder. Though the highlights of that particular stage can be reduced to angsty music videos and a revisioning of Titanic starring Barbie and Ken, it was clear by age fourteen that I gravitated toward sound and video production in an attempt to make sense of my young life. Though my subject matter has evolved a bit since then, my artistic motivation remains the same—making sense of life.

My creative work typically originates in observation and research. I encounter something in the world that doesn’t make sense to me. I watch it for a while. I read everything ever written about it. I obsess. Ultimately, my research comes together in a sound or video piece in an attempt to creatively process it all. An example of this process is Sealed, an autobiographical radio documentary conceived to emotionally investigate my parents’ divorce. After nearly 20 years of observing the aftermath in my own life, I read book after book on the effects of parental divorce on children. I spent hours talking with my siblings; tentatively asked questions of my parents. The final result was a 22-minute piece recounting six experiences—none of which were the same.

Repeatedly going through this pattern of observe / research / obsess / respond has taught me one thing—I am an authority on nothing but my own experience. Because of that, my work centers on autobiographical and essay documentary. I use the lens of my personal experience to observe the world and the complex interpersonal dynamics that comprise it. I artistically reflect on relationships of all kinds in hopes of improving upon them—creating work that fosters empathy and illuminates the aspects of humanity that require attention.

I make art to change people, and I make art to change myself.