Beverly A Seckinger

Biography

Beverly Seckinger, M.A., M.F.A. is Professor in the School of Theatre, Film & Television and former Interim Director (2008-2010) and Associate Director (2004-2008) of the School of Media Arts.  She is a founding member of the UA Committee (now Institute) for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies, and since 1993 has directed the annual Lesbian Looks Film Series. She is now in the process of establishing a Center for Documentary at the University of Arizona, and directs the DocScapes screening and workshop series.  She also teaches in the Human Rights Practice online master's program.

Her film Hippie Family Values, a feature-length documentary about three generations at a back-to-the-land community in rural New Mexico, won the Grand Festival Award for Documentary at the Berkeley Film Festival, the Outstanding Project Award for 2019 from the Communal Studies Association, and the Outstanding Documentary Award from the University Film & Video Association. The film continues to screen in community and campus venues across the country, and is distributed to educational institutions by New Day Films.

Seckinger’s previous films have been screened on PBS, at international festivals in the US, Europe, Canada, Australia and Latin America, and non-theatrically throughout the U.S.  Her 2004 diary/documentary Laramie Inside Out, about the aftermath of Matthew Shepard's 1998 murder in her hometown community, had its U.S. broadcast premier on PBS in June 2007, and is distributed by New Day Films, Filmoption/Canada, and American Public Television. It has been screened at dozens of universities, conferences and community events across the country, and purchased for the permanent collections of nearly 400 colleges and universities.

Seckinger has served on the Steering Committee of New Day Films, the leading filmmaker-owned distribution company for social issue documentaries, as head of the Web Operations team (2014-16) and as Head of Promotions (2010-12). She is also a longtime member and former officer and board member of the University Film & Video Association.

Degrees

• M.F.A. Radio-Television-Film
• Temple University
• M.A. Anthropology
• University of Arizona
• B.A. English and French
• University of Wyoming

Awards

• University Distinguished Outreach Professor
• University of Arizona, Spring 2022
• Faculty-Student Interaction Grant
• Spring 2020
• Fall 2019
• Spring 2019
• Fall 2018
• Spring 2018
• Fall 2012
• DocScapes co-sponsorships
• In addition to the Hanson Film Institute, co-sponsors for 2019 include the Human Rights Practice Program, the Center for Latin American Studies, the School of Anthropology, the School of Journalism, the Center for Border and Global Journalism, and the Faculty Fellows program., Fall 2019
• Grand Festival Award for Documentary
• Berkeley Video and Film Festival, Fall 2019
• Outstanding Project Award for 2019
• Communal Studies Association, Fall 2019
• CFA Small Grant
• Summer 2018
• Fall 2001
• Spring 2001
• Outstanding Feature Documentary
• University Film & Video Association, Summer 2018
• Faculty-student interaction grant
• Spring 2018
• Spring 2004
• Fulbright Scholar Award
• Council for International Exchange of Scholars, Spring 2014 (Award Finalist)
• Innovation Farm Project Grant
• Confluence Center for Creative Inquiry, Spring 2014
• Student-Faculty Interaction Grant
• Spring 2012
• Arizona Commission on the Arts Artist Project Grant
• Spring 2008
• Research Fellowship
• Fall 2007
• Sabbatical leave
• Fall 2007
• Best of Arizona Award
• Spring 2004
• Who's Who in Fine Arts Higher Education
• Fall 2003
• Student Faculty Interaction Grant
• Spring 2003
• Media Arts Fellowship
• Spring 2002
• Media Arts Fellowship 2002
• Fall 2001