Ania Freer is an Australian-Jamaican documentary filmmaker. She has documented oral histories of the people of Jamaica as a curator and through her filmmaking. Her film ''Strictly Two Wheel'' won the Best Documentary Short Film Award at the

Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival The Trinidad and Tobago film festival (ttff) is a film festival in the Anglophone Caribbean. It takes place annually in Trinidad and Tobago in the latter half of September, and runs for approximately two weeks. The festival screens feature-length n ...

in 2022. Born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia, Freer graduated from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

. She has exhibited at the National Gallery of Jamaica.

Early life and education

Ania Freer was born in

, Australia. Her grandmother has roots in the rural town of

Gayle Gayle or Gayl may refer to: People * Gayle (given name), people with the given name * Gayle (surname), people with the surname * Gayle (singer) (born 2004), American singer-songwriter Places * Gayle, North Yorkshire, England * Gayle, Jamaica, a ...

in Saint Mary Parish while her grandfather is from Christiana. Ania grew up in Australia and London, where her grandparents lived. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the

in 2009, where she studied anthropology and film studies.

Art career

While in Australia, Freer worked for

Screen Australia Screen Australia is the Australian Federal Government's key funding body for the Australian screen production industry, created under the ''Screen Australia Act 2008''. From 1 July 2008 Screen Australia took over the functions of its predecess ...

and No Coincidence Media and was involved in the production of documentary films. After moving to Jamaica in 2016, she started a mini-documentary series called ''REAL TALK''. Freer's works have documented oral histories of people in Jamaica. One of her films from 2018 captures two girls, about six years old, describing a freshwater

mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are sometimes asso ...

who lives near Roaring River in Westmoreland. Freer was the inaugural Curatorial and Art Writing Fellow at New Local Space in

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the five most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

in 2019. She curated the group exhibition ''All That Don't Leave'', which featured oral histories and craftworks of seven Jamaican artists. At the 2019 summer exhibition of the National Gallery of Jamaica, Freer presented a three-channel video installation. One of the films was ''Riva Maid'', an interview with Dwight "Bobo" Hayes about a water spirit that abducted a woman in Roaring River. ''Riva Maid'' was included in the 2022 group exhibition ''Sound, Stories'' at the Miami gallery Locust Projects. Freer created the 10-minute documentary short ''Strictly Two Wheel'', which featured Jonathan "Bobo" Wilson, an elderly Jamaican bicycle repairman. She directed, filmed, edited, and produced the film. The film was shown at the

where it won the Best Documentary Short Film Award in 2022. Freer participated in the exhibition ''Passages at the Nest'' in 2022. She filmed ''Kaa-Ha-Yut-Le'', a video portrait of the

Everglades The Everglades is a natural region of tropical climate, tropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orland ...

featuring Seminole artist Daniel Tommie. Freer is the operator and curator of the online gallery and digital platform Goat Curry Gallery. She began conducting research and interviews in Senegalese fishing communities in 2022.

Selected exhibitions

*2017 – ''CHROM/ART International'', London *2019 – National Gallery of Jamaica Summer Exhibition *2022 – ''Sound, Stories'', Locust Projects, Miami *2023 – ''Passages at the Nest'', AIRIE Nest Art Gallery

References

External links

Goat Curry Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freer, Ania Living people University of Sydney alumni Australian documentary filmmakers Australian art curators Women documentary filmmakers Jamaican film directors Australian video artists Australian people of Jamaican descent 1986 births