Danae Elon

I came to Queens because teaching and mentoring students is a vocation. Helping them find their artistic voices is what makes me feel alive. I want to share what has been a life-long path of discovery and passion with a younger generation and give back some of the most fulfilling experiences I have had to those who are going to walk in similar paths or discover new ones. 

Danae Elon is an award winning documentary filmmaker, writer, producer and cinematographer.  A  recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim scholarship for those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts”.  Danae’s films have won numerous awards at international film festivals such as Tribeca, Doker, Haifa, Doc Aviv, RIDM and others. She is a two time Sundance Institute Fellow and has received grants from the New Foundation for Film and TV, The Makor foundation, The Quebec Art Council, Canada Art Council, Sodec and Canada Media Fund .  Her last film  A Sister’s Song  won her an Iris award for best cinematography as well as numerous international prizes for best documentary film (Doker) and innovation in Documentary making ( DOc Aviv). Her short Life of a Dog, was selected by CBC Gem as part of the Covid Relief fund for artists from over 4000 submissions. Life of A Dog was a finalist for best documentary at Gala Quebec Iris awards. Her films Another Road Home 2004, Partly Private 2007, P.S Jerusalem 2015 and The Patriarch’s Room 2017( Best Documentary film Beyond Borders 2021, Best Documentary Toronto Jewish Film Festival, Orpheus Award LA Greek Film Festival) have been showcased at TIFF, Berlinale, Tribeca, IDFA, Hot Docs, Melbourne IFF, Human Rights watch FF, FIPA, Leipzig  and many other international film festivals, they have also been theatrically released in the US and Canada and broadcast on the BBC, ARTE, The Sundance Channel,  Radio Canada, YLE Finland, TV2 Denmark, HOT and CHANNEL 1 Israel, AL JAZEERA International.   Danae is currently working on two new feature films as well as a Virtual Reality experience supported by the Quebec Art Council, The Canada Art Council,  Sodec and the Canada Media Fund. In addition to her film work, Danae is a cinematographer, a mentor and a curator. She has programmed for The Cinema South Film Festival and is currently selecting films for the on-line VOD platform TENK.