Elizabeth Press (EP)

Pandemic Letter #1 May 28, 2020

This video was created at what we considered to be the beginning of the pandemic as we were trying to figure out how to cope with our new existence under lockdown and how to communicate this new reality to our child. My partner and collaborator Angela Beallor helped record the video, shooting on a DSLR with a macro lens. Our kid turned three right before I wrote this. Now, they are four. So far, we have survived this pandemic with little personal loss but not without the stresses that come along with constantly being on for work, for our family, and for our community. We continue to struggle as a queer family in a predominately heteronormative parent community and we continue to work, as a white family, for racial justice in our town.

Elizabeth Press (EP/They/Them) is a media-maker and educator based in Troy, NY.  Press is interested in socially engaged practices and experimental documentary which sometimes crosses over with topics of caregiving.

Press is a lecturer in the Arts Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute teaching classes in digital filmmaking and studio production. Press has also taught classes at New York University, The New School and several after-school and community media centers.

Press cut their teeth in journalism as a producer for the independent TV/Radio program, Democracy Now!. As a videographer, producer and editor, Press worked with BRIC Arts Media, The International Institute for Sustainable Development covering the UN climate negotiations, StreetFilms, GritTV with Laura Flanders and PBS.

Press’ work has been screened in international festivals across Europe and featured here in the New York Times, Democracy Now!, Rooftop Films, Exit Art, and EMPAC.

EP is on the board for the Sanctuary for Independent Media and helped bottom-line the launch of the low power FM station and the daily local news show, The Hudson Mohawk Magazine in 2017 that still runs today. 

Press is a Fulbright Scholar, has an MFA in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a BA in Anthropology from Ithaca College.