Miriam Harris Video Interview Interview with Dr. Carole Shepheard
Artist and writer Miriam Harris talks about her life and relationship to the Holocaust as a daughter of a Holocaust survivor. Discussing her Jewish identity in relation to her creative life as an animator, Miriam shares how the imagery and ideas informing her work echo the love and loss of family.
Miriam Harris is a Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design and Animation at Unitec New Zealand. In 2011 she completed her PhD with a thesis entitled "Words & Images That Move: The relationship between text and drawing in the animated film and graphic novel.” She has had essays published in international books such as “Animated Worlds” (2007), “The Jewish Graphic Novel” (2009), and the online “Animation Journal”. She curated the exhibition “24 Czech & Polish Animators” and edited and wrote the accompanying catalogue; to date, this exhibition has been shown at the Pah Homestead, Auckland, in 2011-12, and in Portland, Oregon, in 2013. She is on the editorial board for the academic journal “Animation Practice, Production and Process”, which is edited by UK animation authority Professor Paul Wells.
She is also an animation practitioner, and her collaborative film “Soaring, Roaring, Diving,” made with composer Juliet Palmer, won the Best Experimental Film award at the 2009 Brooklyn International Film Festival, New York. Miriam has degrees in fine arts, creative writing and literature from the University of Auckland, and Post Graduate Certificates in Digital Animation and Visual Effects from Sheridan College, Canada. Following her training at Sheridan College, she worked commercially with motion graphics and animation in Toronto, and upon her return to New Zealand in 2003, has continued to work on both independent and commercial animation projects.
"The Jewish Graphic Novel: Critical Approaches" edited by Samantha Baskind and Ranen Omer-Sherman
Rutgers University Press, 2008
