Explore Shelly Barry’s YouTube Channel
Exhibitions and Screenings (selection)
2019
Here (VR dance film installation, South Africa, 10mins)
Presented at: Immersive Africa Exhibition – A Collection of 360° Narratives
Works by work by Nyasha Kadandara, Shelley Barry and Nirma Madhoo.
Isivivana Center in Khayelitsha, Cape Town.
10-13 December 2019
Curated by Electric South
Presented at: In Frame – A 360 Film Exhibition
23 November 2019-11 January 2020
TMRW Gallery, Rosebank
Second Creativate Digital Arts Festival at the National Arts Festival
Makhanda, 27 June to 7 July 2019
National Arts Festival 2019 #1, #2, #3
2010
An Evening With Shelley Barry
28 April 2010, New York University, 19 University Place, 1st Fl theater. Room 102.
Part of the disTHIS! Film Series, a project of the Disabilities Network of NYC in association with the New York University Council for the Study of Disability, a monthly showcase of festival quality independent and international short, documentary and feature films with disability themes audiences are unlikely to see elsewhere.
Film director Shelley Barry @ NYU, Sean Jacobs, Africasacrountry
2007
Umbilical Cord (rehearsal documentation)
Presented at: eVokability: The Walking Project
14, 15, 16 June 2007
Dance Theatre Workshop Studio
219 West 19th Street, NYC 10011
22 & 23 June 2007
Spirit Wind Studio
213 New St., Philadelphia, PA 19106
Selected Filmography
2019
Here (VR dance film installation, South Africa, 10mins)
Premiere at the Together! 2019 Disability Film Festival, 6-8 December 2019
The Old Town Hall Stratford Broadway London E15 4BQ, IMDB
2018
Re:incarnation (video poetry)
A woman longs for her lover she has spent lifetimes with.
Presented at Latitudes Art Fair 2020
Out of Reach (video poetry)
The city is out of reach for people with disabilities.
Ink/Visible
A writer contemplates how writing counters invisibility.
2015
Keep in Touch
This fast paced, edgy music documentary celebrates the rise of Dope St Junde, a young, gender queer hip- hop star and all the challenges she faces in their quest for success.
Review:
Staff writer (2015) Feminist Filmmaker Meets Boss Bitch Rapper. thejournalist 18 June 2015. Available online here.
2014
I’m Not Done Yet
A tribute to artist, activist and writer, Charlene Maslamoney who succumbed to cancer in 2013. The 48-minute documentary celebrates Charlene’s work.
Reviews:
Arts Writer (2015) Filmmaker Barry’s new work inspires hope. Cape Times 21 May 2015. Available online here.
Cornelius, Jerome (2015) Film on activist’s cancer journey to touch patients’ lives. Times Live (7 August 2015). Available online here.
Lewis, Desiree (2015) Gender, feminism and food studies. African Security Review, 24(4): 414-429. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2015.1090115
Available online here.
Diaries of a Dissident Poet (shortened documentary feature)
Tracing the story of Dr James Matthews who used poetry to fight against the struggle and save his own life.
Selected and sold out: Encounters Documentary Film Festival.
2013
Mr Shakes the Passion to Live (shortened documentary feature)
A story of disco, cancer, tik. And Jesus.
Selected and sold out: Encounters Documentary Film Festival
2011
Place of Grace (in collaboration with Gerard Samuel)
The dance of love and betrayal.
Funded by GIPCA, UCT, screened at UCT School of Dance on 9 April 2011
2007
Where We Planted Trees
The story of nostalgia for a house taken away during the group areas act in Port Elizabeth.
Best Documentary: Diamond Screen film festival, Philadelphia
New York/New Brighton (short fiction)
Two young girls across the oceans (Port Elizabeth and New York) dream of meeting Mandela and Yemaya.
2006
Cry Like the Loons (experimental documentary)
A car accident transforms a holiday experience.
Str/oll (experimental documentary)
A woman in a wheelchair explores the streets of Manhattan.
Umbilical Cord
A revisioning of Frida Kahlo’s painting “What the water gave me”
2005
Retrato/Portrait (short fiction)
Portraits from the life of a transwoman reflecting on her transition and her fractured relationship with her mother.
Presented at Latitudes Art Fair 2020
Watch preview on Vimeo:
Inclinations (short fiction)
Co-directed with Jen Simmons
A writer faces blocks in writing and in love.
Extensive screenings worldwide.
Purchased by MTV in 2007 Selected as top 10 click list on MTV’s online film site.
Where are my Heels? (experimental documentary)
A two year old girl in Puerto Rico takes over a party.
Pants? Skirt? Lipstick?
Queer couples and their friends plot a night of fooling immigration for a green card, during the Presidency of George Bush.
Selected for screening at The San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
2004
Whole: A Trinity of Being (experimental documentary)
Three experimental shorts which deal with sexuality, visibility, and voice from the perspective of a wheelchair user who turns the camera on herself to celebrate love and survival. Including Pin Pricks, Voice/Over and Entry (Source: African Film Festival New York)
Best Film: Superfest: California
Best Narrative Short: Philadelphia Festival of Independents
Best Experimental Film: Breaking Barriers Festival: Moscow
Best Experimental Film: Projections 2: Canada
Spirit of Independence Award: Brooklyn (New York) International Disability Film Festival
Jurors Citation Award: Black Maria Film Festival, New Jersey
Outstanding Graduate Student Award, Pennsylvania Association of Graduate Schools
Audre Lorde scholarship award for media production
Television Acquisition: WYBE, DUTV (community tv stations USA) SABC, SA International festival screenings
Presented at Latitudes Art Fair 2020
Watch preview on Vimeo
