People

Rebecca Shapass is a filmmaker and artist investigating documentary form and archival practice through the creation of film & video, photo, installation, and text. Shapass’ work combines techniques of optical & aural abstraction with documentary sensibilities to propel audiences into a space of questioning not only what they see & hear – but how and why. Shapass is compelled by the uncapturable – what escapes both image & language — and how these absences haunt memory & archive

Her work has been exhibited and screened with institutions and festivals including Smack Mellon (Brooklyn, NY), Miller ICA (Pittsburgh, PA), Microscope Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Knockdown Center (Queens, NY), The Anderson (Richmond, VA), Ann Arbor Film Festival (Ann Arbor, MI), Mimesis Documentary Festival (Boulder, CO), Motel/X Lisbon International Horror Festival (Lisbon, Portugal), amongst others. She is a 2025 artist-in-residence at the Mattress Factory Museum (Pittsburgh, PA) and previously held residencies at Crosstown Arts (Memphis, TN) and Smack Mellon (Brooklyn, NY) where she was also a NY Community Trust Van Lier Fellow. In 2023 she was granted a Creative Development Award from the Heinz Endowment (Pittsburgh).  Shapass holds an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University and BFA in Film & Television and Art History from New York University.