Ciara Leina`ala Lacy
She // Her // Hers
[ID: A woman smiling in front of blue-gray ocean waves. She has shoulder-length brown hair that flies in the wind and is wearing glasses and a khaki blazer.]
Portrait photo by Bruna Hort.
Honolulu, HI
2024 USA Fellow
This award was generously supported by Mellon Foundation.
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Ciara Leina`ala Lacy is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker whose Native Hawaiian identity drives the intimacy and authenticity in her work. Lacy’s films have been shown at Sundance and the Berlinale as well as on platforms including Netflix, PBS, ABC, Al Jazeera, and the Criterion Collection. She has also consulted for Ubisoft, Pixar, and others. Notably, she is the inaugural Sundance Institute Merata Mita Fellow, and her work has been supported by Sundance, Tribeca, Nia Tero, the Princess Grace Foundation, the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, Pacific Islanders in Communications, and Firelight Media. She holds a BA in Psychology from Yale University, which deeply informs her process as someone looking to excavate truth and emotion to better understand what it means to be human. Whether the content she is working on is live-action or animated, documentary or fiction, short or feature length, Lacy aims to craft stories that feel immediate, personal, and revelatory.
Out of State poster, 2017.[ID: A movie poster featuring a figure, seen at a distance, standing in the ocean with water coming up to their knees. The figure is backlit; their dark silhouette contrasts with the ghostly gray sky and pale-green waves.]
