Erin Semine Kökdil

Erin Semine Kökdil (she/her) is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, educator, and National Geographic explorer interested in building solidarity and inciting social change through film. Her work explores love and resistance, touching upon themes of migration, identity, and motherhood, and has screened at IDFA, Hot Docs, Camden International Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, AFI Docs, Palm Springs International ShortFest, among others. Her work has been supported by SFFILM, Mountainfilm, Marble House Project Residency, Points North Institute, National Geographic, Fulbright, Independence Public Media Foundation, and featured on the LA Times, The New Yorker, KQED, Vimeo Staff Picks, and Means TV. Prior to becoming a filmmaker, she worked extensively with non-profits and community-led initiatives in the U.S. and Guatemala. Her short documentary, SINCE YOU ARRIVED, MY HEART STOPPED BELONGING TO ME, was nominated for Best Short Documentary at the IDA Awards in 2021. Her short documentary, LOVE IN THE TIME OF MIGRATION, was selected to the Cinema Eye Honors 2024 Best Short Documentary Nominees. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies and Spanish from Smith College and an MFA in Documentary Film and Video from Stanford University. She is the recipient of a 2019 SFFilm Film House Residency, a 2020 Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellowship, and a 2022 Confluence Fellowship from the True False Film Festival. She is an Assistant Professor of Creative Media Production at the University of Oklahoma.