Miriam Harris

Film director, Miriam Harris’s latest film ‘Visiting Ben Shemen’ screened at the Doc Edge festival as part of the NZ Shorts compilation.

In this innovative animated film, director Miriam Harris tells her mother's story and that of two other Jewish women who first met in 1946 at the Ben Shemen School in Israel, exploring their personal histories of love, loss, and survival through intimate interviews and mixed media techniques, resulting in a powerful and moving portrait of three women.

The film screened Friday May 26th at the Capitol Cinema, as part of the NZ Shorts I compilation, and will also be available for online viewing from June 19th - July 9th. Here is the link: https://docedge.nz/films/nz-shorts-1/ 

Miriam Harris is an Associate Professor in Animation, VFX, and Game Design (AVG) at the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. 

She completed graduate study in Digital Animation and VFX at Sheridan College, Canada, and is an award-winning animator who has had work screened at a variety of international festivals. She has had essays published on areas such as experimental and Czech/Polish animation, and the relationship of animation with fine arts, digital media, memory, and culture. 

In 2013 Dr Carole Shepheard interviewed Miriam for the Jewish On-line Museum (precursor to Jewish Lives). In this interview Harris talks about her life and relationship to the Holocaust as a daughter of a Holocaust survivor. Discussing her Jewish identity in relation to her creative life as an animator, Miriam shares how the imagery and ideas informing her work echo the love and loss of family.