KENDRA MCLAUGHLIN (she/her) is a Canadian filmmaker, artist and scholar.
Her practice explores paradoxes of memory, preservation and care work, within institutions and in the everyday. The resulting non-fiction films excavate how imagistic thought functions in these realms, often hovering at the edge of the scientific and the fictional. She is currently advancing this work through a PhD in Film & Visual Studies and Anthropology at Harvard University. Prior to this, she was in residence at Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains and a participant in the School of Political Arts (SPEAP) founded by Bruno Latour.
Her film/video work has shown internationally, including at the Jeu de Paume (France), Vancouver International Film Festival (Canada), Singapore International Film Festival (Singapore), Sarajevo Film Festival (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Centre Pompidou (France), ICA London (UK), and more. Additionally, films she has worked on as a cinematographer or editor have screened at the Venice Film Festival (Italy), New York Film Festival (USA), BFI London (UK), Villa Medici Film Festival (Italy), amongst other venues.
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Photo credit: Isabella Hin
Her practice explores paradoxes of memory, preservation and care work, within institutions and in the everyday. The resulting non-fiction films excavate how imagistic thought functions in these realms, often hovering at the edge of the scientific and the fictional. She is currently advancing this work through a PhD in Film & Visual Studies and Anthropology at Harvard University. Prior to this, she was in residence at Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains and a participant in the School of Political Arts (SPEAP) founded by Bruno Latour.
Her film/video work has shown internationally, including at the Jeu de Paume (France), Vancouver International Film Festival (Canada), Singapore International Film Festival (Singapore), Sarajevo Film Festival (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Centre Pompidou (France), ICA London (UK), and more. Additionally, films she has worked on as a cinematographer or editor have screened at the Venice Film Festival (Italy), New York Film Festival (USA), BFI London (UK), Villa Medici Film Festival (Italy), amongst other venues.
Photo credit: Isabella Hin
SELECT NEWS
2026 La Cité internationale des arts (France)
Institut Français Residency
2026 The Bergman Estate on Fårö (Sweden)
Residency
2025 Films from the Film Study Center, Harvard Film Archive
Work-in-progress screening and conversation with Dennis Lim
2025 Cinematography for Fragments for Venus (dir. Alice Diop, France/Italy)
World premiere at Venice Film Festival, US premiere at New York Film Festival
Online at Mubi and Miu Miu Women’s Tales
2025 Cinematic Involutions, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
Conversation with artists Tulapop Saenjaroen and Andrew Yong Hoon Lee
2025 Jeu de Paume (France)
Screening of La plage aux êtres and conversation with critic Jean-Michel Frodon,
as part of Le cinéma de Verena Paravel et Lucien Castaing-Taylor: Une écoute du monde
2025 Labocine: “Micrographia” (June issue)
La plage aux êtres, online screening
2025 Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University
The Plow and the Camera: Tools for navigating ‘The Planetary Garden’ (talk)
in Collaborations Afield: Work Across Ecologies and Disciplines (conference)
2024 Dept. of Art, Film and Visual Studies, Harvard University
Imprint in Flux(us): AFVS Staff Exhibition
2024 Braga Science Film Fest (Portugal)
La plage aux êtres, Official Selection
2024 26th Festival EQUINOXIO (Colombia)
International Jury Member, National Experimental Short Film Competition
2024 The 69th Flaherty Film Seminar: To Commune
Participant. Thai Film Archive, Salaya
2024 The Film Study Center at Harvard
FSC-Harvard Fellowship recipient
2024 The Archaeology Channel International Film Festival
La plage aux êtres, Official Selection
2024 CineToro Experimental Film Festival
La plage aux êtres, Official Selection
2023 Beijing International Short Film Festival
La plage aux êtres, International Competition
2023 17th Kurzfilmfestival Köln / Short Film Festival Cologne
La plage aux êtres, Official Selection
Program: New Aesthetics
2023 34th Singapore International Film Festival
La plage aux êtres, Official Selection
Program: Undercurrents
2023 Dept. of Art, Film and Visual Studies, Harvard University
La plage aux êtres, Faculty & Alumni Screening Series
alongside films by Peter Galison and Nnenna Onuoha
2023 25th Festival EQUINOXIO (Colombia)
La plage aux êtres, Official Selection
Program: Retazos del recordar
*Award for Best International Experimental Short Film
2023 DIFFUSION by re:assemblage collective (Toronto)
La plage aux êtres, Official Selection
Program: Psychic Shapes, Lingering Marks
2023 Labocine: “Watching The Dark” (July issue)
La plage aux êtres, online screening
2023 MIT Museum
Group exhibition Counteractions
2023 Distillery Gallery (Boston)
Group exhibition Counteractions
2023 New York University (USA)
Screening ofAlcoves
2023 The Film Study Center at Harvard
FSC-Harvard Fellowship recipient
2023 Dept. of Film and Television, Istanbul Bilgi Univerity
“At Land and Sea: Topographical Imagination and the Moving Image” Conference
Presentation of La plage aux êtres
2023 MIT Consortium for Studies in Gender, Culture, Women & Sexuality
“Liberating Spatiality and Temporality” Conference
Presentation of La plage aux êtres
2023 London Short Film Festival at ICA London
La plage aux êtres, International Competition
2022 Dept. of the History of Science, Harvard University
“Science New Wave” Conference
Presentation of La plage aux êtres
2022 Labocine: “Science New Wave” (November issue)
La plage aux êtres, online screening
2022 Imagine Science Film Festival
La plage aux êtres, Shorts competition
2022 Vancouver International Film Festival
La plage aux êtres, Shorts Forum
2022 FEST New Directors New Films
La plage aux êtres, NEXXT Competition
2022 Videoformes International Digital Arts Festival
La plage aux êtres, Video Competition
2022 Festival International des Films de Femmes
La plage aux êtres, International Competition
2021 Le Fresnoy - National Contemporary Arts Studio
La plage aux êtres in group exhibition ...par le rêve...
2021 DocLisboa x UnionDocs
Nebulae Filmmaking Seminar
2021 27th Sarajevo Film Festival
Alcoves, Official selection
2021 FIDMarseille
Alcoves, FIDCampus
2021 LaM Lille Musée Métropolde d’art moderne
Group exhibition Idéale Art Brut
Invitation within Laure Prouvost‘s Deep See Blue Surrounding You
2020 Ashkal Alwan
7th edition of aashra, We shall not hold them accountable, we shall take revenge
2020 Le Fresnoy - National Contemporary Arts Studio
Alcoves in exhibition Les sentinelles
2020 One World Media UK
Production Fellowship
2019 Le Fresnoy - National Contemporary Arts Studio
Selected artist
2019 Rencontres internationales Le jardin de l’Europe, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Artist residency
2018 Centre Pompidou
Mésures compensatoires in exhibition Hors Pistes: La nation et ses fictions
2018 Centre Culturel International de Cerisy
Planetary Frictions Seminar
2018 Galerie VU’ Paris
Sciences Po Political Photography Prize Exhibition
Jury Special Mention
2017 Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers
Public restitution of Mésures compensatoires
2017 Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers
School of Political Arts (SPEAP) Residency
2026 La Cité internationale des arts (France)
Institut Français Residency
2026 The Bergman Estate on Fårö (Sweden)
Residency
2025 Films from the Film Study Center, Harvard Film Archive
Work-in-progress screening and conversation with Dennis Lim
2025 Cinematography for Fragments for Venus (dir. Alice Diop, France/Italy)
World premiere at Venice Film Festival, US premiere at New York Film Festival
Online at Mubi and Miu Miu Women’s Tales
2025 Cinematic Involutions, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
Conversation with artists Tulapop Saenjaroen and Andrew Yong Hoon Lee
2025 Jeu de Paume (France)
Screening of La plage aux êtres and conversation with critic Jean-Michel Frodon,
as part of Le cinéma de Verena Paravel et Lucien Castaing-Taylor: Une écoute du monde
2025 Labocine: “Micrographia” (June issue)
La plage aux êtres, online screening
2025 Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University
The Plow and the Camera: Tools for navigating ‘The Planetary Garden’ (talk)
in Collaborations Afield: Work Across Ecologies and Disciplines (conference)
2024 Dept. of Art, Film and Visual Studies, Harvard University
Imprint in Flux(us): AFVS Staff Exhibition
2024 Braga Science Film Fest (Portugal)
La plage aux êtres, Official Selection
2024 26th Festival EQUINOXIO (Colombia)
International Jury Member, National Experimental Short Film Competition
2024 The 69th Flaherty Film Seminar: To Commune
Participant. Thai Film Archive, Salaya
2024 The Film Study Center at Harvard
FSC-Harvard Fellowship recipient
2024 The Archaeology Channel International Film Festival
La plage aux êtres, Official Selection
2024 CineToro Experimental Film Festival
La plage aux êtres, Official Selection
2023 Beijing International Short Film Festival
La plage aux êtres, International Competition
2023 17th Kurzfilmfestival Köln / Short Film Festival Cologne
La plage aux êtres, Official Selection
Program: New Aesthetics
2023 34th Singapore International Film Festival
La plage aux êtres, Official Selection
Program: Undercurrents
2023 Dept. of Art, Film and Visual Studies, Harvard University
La plage aux êtres, Faculty & Alumni Screening Series
alongside films by Peter Galison and Nnenna Onuoha
2023 25th Festival EQUINOXIO (Colombia)
La plage aux êtres, Official Selection
Program: Retazos del recordar
*Award for Best International Experimental Short Film
2023 DIFFUSION by re:assemblage collective (Toronto)
La plage aux êtres, Official Selection
Program: Psychic Shapes, Lingering Marks
2023 Labocine: “Watching The Dark” (July issue)
La plage aux êtres, online screening
2023 MIT Museum
Group exhibition Counteractions
2023 Distillery Gallery (Boston)
Group exhibition Counteractions
2023 New York University (USA)
Screening ofAlcoves
2023 The Film Study Center at Harvard
FSC-Harvard Fellowship recipient
2023 Dept. of Film and Television, Istanbul Bilgi Univerity
“At Land and Sea: Topographical Imagination and the Moving Image” Conference
Presentation of La plage aux êtres
2023 MIT Consortium for Studies in Gender, Culture, Women & Sexuality
“Liberating Spatiality and Temporality” Conference
Presentation of La plage aux êtres
2023 London Short Film Festival at ICA London
La plage aux êtres, International Competition
2022 Dept. of the History of Science, Harvard University
“Science New Wave” Conference
Presentation of La plage aux êtres
2022 Labocine: “Science New Wave” (November issue)
La plage aux êtres, online screening
2022 Imagine Science Film Festival
La plage aux êtres, Shorts competition
2022 Vancouver International Film Festival
La plage aux êtres, Shorts Forum
2022 FEST New Directors New Films
La plage aux êtres, NEXXT Competition
2022 Videoformes International Digital Arts Festival
La plage aux êtres, Video Competition
2022 Festival International des Films de Femmes
La plage aux êtres, International Competition
2021 Le Fresnoy - National Contemporary Arts Studio
La plage aux êtres in group exhibition ...par le rêve...
2021 DocLisboa x UnionDocs
Nebulae Filmmaking Seminar
2021 27th Sarajevo Film Festival
Alcoves, Official selection
2021 FIDMarseille
Alcoves, FIDCampus
2021 LaM Lille Musée Métropolde d’art moderne
Group exhibition Idéale Art Brut
Invitation within Laure Prouvost‘s Deep See Blue Surrounding You
2020 Ashkal Alwan
7th edition of aashra, We shall not hold them accountable, we shall take revenge
2020 Le Fresnoy - National Contemporary Arts Studio
Alcoves in exhibition Les sentinelles
2020 One World Media UK
Production Fellowship
2019 Le Fresnoy - National Contemporary Arts Studio
Selected artist
2019 Rencontres internationales Le jardin de l’Europe, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Artist residency
2018 Centre Pompidou
Mésures compensatoires in exhibition Hors Pistes: La nation et ses fictions
2018 Centre Culturel International de Cerisy
Planetary Frictions Seminar
2018 Galerie VU’ Paris
Sciences Po Political Photography Prize Exhibition
Jury Special Mention
2017 Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers
Public restitution of Mésures compensatoires
2017 Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers
School of Political Arts (SPEAP) Residency