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Jennifer Todd Reeves

Adjunct Professor

Jennifer Reeves (b. 1971, Sri Lanka) is a New York-based independent film artist and educator. Working primarily in 16mm film, Reeves has made 25+ film-works from avant-garde shorts to expanded cinema performances and experimental features. Reeves’ award-winning work has shown extensively from the Berlin, Sundance and Hong Kong Film Festivals to the Museum of Modern Art, and numerous universities and art cinemas worldwide. Reeve's acclaimed and visceral films immerse viewers in intricate, unfamiliar cinematic territory. Her work has elucidated themes of mental health and recovery, socio-political critique, feminism and sexuality, and the beauty and decay of the natural world. Reeves currently has two long-form films in the works. Reeve’s in-progress dual projection performance film THE GLORIA OF YOUR IMAGINATION, was selected for the Atelier 105 post-production film residency in Paris (at the world-renowned distribution and experimental media organization Light Cone). This June, Reeves edited and wrapped up most post-production processes for the project there. Reeves will perform the 70-minute expanded cinema work at the world premiere in 2024. Reeves in-progress YANQUIS GO SOUTH, an experimental feature supported by a Princess Grace Awards Special Project grant, is next in line for completion.

Reeves' 2022 16mm short PIGMENT-DISPERSION SYNDROME is making the festival rounds since the world premiere at the 2022 Curtas Vila do Conde International Film Festival. The film received a Director’s Choice Award from The Thomas Edison Film Festival and the Barbara Hammer Feminist Filmmaker Award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival in 2023.

Reeves started making films in 1990, and has been doing her own writing, cinematography, editing and sound design ever since. Her works expand the boundaries of cinematic expression through optical-printing and direct-on-film techniques. For many of her projects, Reeves has collaborated with celebrated composers including Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp and Zeena Parkins. And her 67-minute dual projection WHEN IT WAS BLUE was performed with live music by Skúli Sverrisson, at venues including Toronto International Film Festival, the Sydney Opera House, the Berlinale, and RedCat in Los Angeles.

Reeves has taught film and animation courses at The Cooper Union School of Art since 2005. Reeves began teaching film/video courses in the late 1990s. She has taught and mentored undergraduate students from University of CA, San Diego to Bard College and the New School. Reeves has also taught for MFA programs at Bard College, the School of Visual Arts, and Yale as an adjunct or guest professor.

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  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

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