Alexa Burrell Receives 2025 Barbara Hammer Lesbian Experimental Filmmaking Grant

MFA Art Practice student Alexa Burrell (Class of 2026) has been named the winner of the 2025 Barbara Hammer Lesbian Experimental Filmmaking Grant, presented by Queer|Art. The annual award supports visionary moving-image art by self-identified lesbians and includes a $5,000 grant and individual studio visits with the program’s judges and staff.

Burrell, a Black queer multidisciplinary artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area, works across film, video, animation, sound, sculpture, and performance. Rooted in Afrosurrealist traditions, her practice explores Black ecologies, hauntology, and intergenerational resilience through time-based media.

She was selected from a record-high 190 applicants for her project Fog Apocalypse—an Afrosurrealist fever dream following two Black inmates who fall in love on Alcatraz, escape through a hidden portal, and return as shape-shifting fog spirits to protect the Bay. The film reimagines fog as a metaphor for queer survival, Black ecologies, and the spectral afterlife of incarceration.

Reflecting on the honor, Burrell shared, “Receiving the Barbara Hammer Award is a pivotal moment in my own path as a queer filmmaker—it ties my work to the generations who came before me and lets me hold the door open for future queer storytellers and representation.”