Keely Kernan is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker from the Appalachian Mountains. Her work explores the environment, natural resources, globalization, identity, and community, and has taken her across the U.S. and internationally in collaboration with media outlets and nonprofit organizations.
She is a Flaherty Seminar Fellow and a recipient of the Princess Grace Award in Film for her interactive documentary The Mississippi, as well as the LEF Moving Image Fund for her feature documentary Under the Valley, which examines the depletion of the Rio Grande aquifer in Colorado’s San Luis Valley.
Kernan’s work has been featured by outlets including The Guardian and The Huffington Post, and has screened and exhibited internationally at venues such as Slamdance Film Festival, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, and the Environmental Film Festival at Yale. Her interactive documentary The Mississippi won Best in Documentary Arts at the Mimesis Documentary Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary and Best Directing at Rio WebFest.
Her short film Cow Sense is currently streaming on PBS platforms and will broadcast on Rocky Mountain PBS.
Kernan is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Critical Media Practices at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
KeelyKernan@gmail.com / 717-552-3072
