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  COLLEEN KELLY POPLIN

COLLEEN
KELLY
​POPLIN

FILMMAKER AND EDUCATOR
​
​So Important to See Your Body Type Represented in the Media #ramonahp 
(2025)
This single-channel video and sculptural installation marks my first exploration of nonfiction storytelling in three-dimensional space. In 2017, I posted a photo of my one-year-old daughter standing beside a convenience store Sour Patch Kids display with the caption: "So important to see your body type represented in the media." Years later, I tracked down the original display and transformed it into a projection surface for a film tracing my daughter's life from birth to age eight. Both a record of her growth and my evolving gaze, the installation considers how love, memory, and commerce shape the complicated ways we learn to see ourselves and those we care for, and asks what it means to rewrite those ways of seeing for the next generation.
  • First Place, New Media, University Film & Video Association
  • Currently under consideration for further exhibition


​Families Can Be Together Forever (2016)
Follows my journey out of the Mormon church, a transition that unexpectedly coincided with the birth of my daughter. Filmed over the course of my pregnancy, the film explores the emotional and spiritual weight of leaving Mormonism, its influence on the mother I hoped to become, and how it reshaped my understanding of the mother who raised me.
  • Best Creative Producing, It's All True Documentary Festival
  • Semi-Finalist, Atlanta Docufest
  • Official Selection, The Block Film & Art Festival
  • Official Selection, Female Filmmakers Film Festival
  • Conference Selection, University Film & Video Association


​The Privileges and Responsibilities of Sisters (2015)
Using archival footage from more than forty years of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' General Conference, the film reveals startling expectations of Mormon women. 
  • Official Selection, Yoni Fest
  • Official Selection, Contained Shorts Festival
  • Official Selection, ArtWalk Festival
  • Official Selection, It's All True Documentary Festival​
  • Gallery Exhibition, Minneapolis College of Art & Design

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​Motherhood (2015)
An observational documentary exploring the division of domestic labor through one afternoon with a young straight couple raising their twin toddlers.

Picture
​Sealed (2010)
An autobiographical radio documentary exploring divorce and its lingering impact on children. Two decades after our parents' separation, my siblings and I reflect on the aftermath. 
  • Research statement
  • Theoretical statement
  • Production documentation

The Sunday Sound (2010 - 2015)
In August of 2010, I challenged myself to create a 60-second sound composition each day of the month. I called it The Daily Sixty. Those one-minute dailies eventually became weeklies called The Sunday Sound. All compositions available via News. Here are some favorites.
An Afternoon in Boston's Garden
Passive Manipulation
Love in the Indian Caste System
Having "The Talk"

For Something to Be Beautiful, It Must Make Sense (2008)
Experimental sound composition inspired by Morton Feldman.
God Be With You 'til We Meet Again (2008)
Multi-part vocal performance of the classic hymn written in 1880.
Noon is Midnight (2008)
Experimental sound composition.
Padre Celestial, dime, ¿estás ahí? (2008)
Experimental sound composition.
Being in a Man's Circle (2005)
Learning from some straight white men.

Early Work
All pieces made with the tools available: VHS camcorders, Microsoft Paint, Powerpoint, and MiniDV cassettes. 
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Titanic Remake, Starring Barbie and Ken
Colleen Kelly, 13 years old
Stanford University vs. Seventeen Magazine
Colleen Kelly, 20 years old
The Second Shift
Colleen Kelly, 19 years old

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