Portia Cobb

Portia Cobb is a video artist and producer of short experimental documentary whose videos and installations have been exhibited nationally and internationally. Although trained as a filmmaker, she began using video because of its accessibility and immediacy in the field. Her work often investigates the politics of place and identity. Through her continuing documentation of urban and rural communities in America and West Africa, she draws upon memory and history "as a means of confronting forced movement and forgetting." Portia serves as director of the Community Media Project, an arts outreach program of the Film Department, teaching video production workshops for at-risk teens and media literacy for high school teachers. She also curates and administers two public screening programs: "Africa Beyond," and the "Producers’ Forum." Currently, she is teaching courses in Ethnographic Video Production and Radical Black Film.