Zanre Reed is an Assistant Professor in the Television, Cinema, and Media Arts department at the American University of Central Asia. He holds a Master of Arts in Documentary Film Directing from the LUCA Art School in Brussels, the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest, and Lusofona University in Lisbon (2016-2018, Belgium, Hungary, and Portugal). He also earned a Bachelor of Arts and Honors degree in Communication from North-West University (2013, South Africa).
Zanre joined AUCA in 2020 and is a full-time Assistant Professor. He is a teaching artist, audio narrative podcats maker, and documentarian. His work constructs narrative microcosms that often reflect the general and the universal.
- Awarded the MTN National Radio Award for “Best on-air Weekend Radio Show in South Africa – Campus Radio (2013).
- Awarded the Erasmus Mundus Full Scholarship for MA in Documentary Film Directing (2016-2018).
- Awarded best pitch at Cinema Chemistry workshop at Filmer à tout Prix in Brussels, Belgium (2018).
- “Ek Blom/I bloom” personal documentary invited for screening at Viewfinder Documentary Film Festival in Ghent, Belgium, Queer Lisboa in Lisbon, Portugal (2019), and Rubezh Art Exhibition in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (2023).
- Awarded OSUN Experiential Learning Grant for Course Design Implementation in Photography and Creativity (2024).
- Awarded the Centre for Civic Engagement Grant for Course Design Implementation in Documentary Filmmaking (2024).
- Awarded certificate of Excellence for Teaching and Course Design from the Centre for Learning and Technology and the Centre for Civic Engagement at the American University of Central Asia (2024).
- Awarded a grant to mentor two Afghan women to produce a podcast called “Third Space Expats” at the Podcast Sprint three-day workshop Open Society University Network (OSUN) Experimental Humanities Collaborative at The American University of Central Asia (2023).
- The Bishkek Diaries podcast was selected as a sound art installation at the Rubezh Art Exhibition in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The first episode, “In the Backseat,” was launched inside a minivan installation booth, together with art works curated around themes of migration (2023).
- Creative nonfiction
- Documentary Form and Directing Reality in Documentary Film
- Narrative Photography
- Podcasting, Audio Documentary Making, and Sound as a Medium
- Symbiotic Relationships: Image and Text
- Taking Versus Making Photographs
- “Fatyanova 41” (Working title) – directing a documentary about Russian migration in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. (Currently in production – 2023-2024.)
- “The Bishkek Diaries Podcast”- produced a non-fiction audio documentary podcast guided by themes of transit, borders, identity, access, and belonging, told from the post-Soviet city of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The podcast is currently ranked number one in Kyrgyzstan in the documentary category (2023-2024).
- “Inner Lives, Outer World”– curated a public-facing photography exhibition of visual practitioners and student makers at the American University of Central Asia. The exhibition explored the question, “If the camera deals with the surface of things, can it also reveal something internal?” (2024).
- “Hope and Sorrow from Kabul, Afghanistan to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan” – curated a mixed media public exhibition at the American University of Central Asia which featured self-portraits of Afghan students together with The Bishkek Diaries second episode about Afghan students’ migration from Kabul, Afghanistan to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (2022).
- “Kiep Kiep!” – directed a short documentary film about the tenderness of my grandmother’s relationship with silence and chickens on her farm in South Africa (2019-2021).
- “Who Makes the Mountains?” directed a short documentary making use of VHS family home movies and sound. A telephone correspondence with my parents and younger brother began to expose the religious bubbles that separated us from each other, the world, and ourselves (2018).
- “Ek Blom/I Bloom” directed a short performative documentary made with cinematographer Denis Galenkov. A reflection on dirt, gender, and separations told from a garden in Brussels, Belgium (2018).
- Chronicle of a Summer Documentary Making Course on Happiness (OSUN)
- Documentary Filmmaking
- History of Photography
- Photography and Creativity
- Scriptwriting
- Sound and Podcast Production
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