BIO

Lisa Marie Evans is a filmmaker and animator. She co-directed, edited, and animated In Her Words: 20th Century Lesbian Fiction. In 2020, In Her Words was the first film to win the Publishing Triangle’s Michele Karlsberg Leadership Award. Since April of 2022, the film has reached audiences across Italy, Ireland, Spain, Germany, England, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Australia, the Philippines, Canada and the United States.

Evans was a keynote speaker at VIII Gendercom: the International Conference on Gender & Communication held in Viterbo, Italy in 2022. She received a grant from the US Embassy in Rome to support the 2024 International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia and the advancement of the LGBTQI+ policies, including a screening of In Her Words at Sapienza University in Rome.

Evans debuted an animation to accompany a bassoon performance by Lia Uribe of Fernando Fernández's Enredadas Alegrías at the 2023 International Double Reed Society conference in Bangkok, Thailand. She is a 2021 recipient of the Arkansas Arts Council’s Fellowship Award in Cinematic Arts. Evans co-produced Beyond Belief: Three Stories of Faith in Action, part of a 2016 national initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in partnership with Kansas City PBS.

Over the past 20 years, Evans has mentored hundreds of multidisciplinary artists. Currently, she is the Director of Creative Development for CACHE where she designs and leads grant programs, project support and professional development programming for artists. Since 2020, she has overseen the distribution of $840K+ dollars to over 190 creatives.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I am a lesbian filmmaker and animator dedicated to preserving LGBTQI+ history and culture. My documentary films highlight the lives of trailblazing lesbian authors, transgender individuals in the Midwest, gay playwrights, queer youth, and Pride festival attendees sharing the first moments they realized their LGBTQI+ identities. I collect and share stories to celebrate our diverse community, personalize history, and counteract erasure.

In my work, I direct, shoot, conduct interviews, edit, and animate. During interviews, I create an environment where individuals feel supported and empowered to share their personal stories, giving them agency over their narratives. I use on-camera interviews to capture emotions, expressions, and body language, humanizing stories and showcasing the diverse representation of LGBTQI+ lives. I weave these interviews with archival footage and animation, using archival imagery to anchor and enrich the work by providing depth, context, and a powerful connection to the past. Animation adds visual relief and a creative dimension to the storytelling.

I employ two predominant styles of animation. One is a black-and-white rotoscope technique, tracing live-action footage frame by frame to create animated sequences. The images are often loosely drawn to evoke a sense of nostalgia, allowing viewers to project their own experiences and emotions onto the story, fostering a deeper connection. In contrast, I also use bright, vivid floral animation that is intricately layered and continuously looping. This style adds an element of beauty and provides moments for reflection and meditation, enriching the viewing experience.