Shari Robertson

Shari Robertson grew up in East Texas and New Mexico, where she trained in anthropology and ethnographic film, inspired by the genre's great French pioneer, Jean Rouch. She began her career in the Southern Highlands rain-forest of Papua New Guinea with the Bosavi people, observing the effects of rapid culture change on a small scale tribal society. Her film work since often examines difficult situations in normally inaccessible places: young Khmer Rouge guerrillas crossing Cambodian minefields, Indian archaeologists racing time to restore the wondrous ancient temple of Angkor Wat, the tragicomic crossroads of the American drug war n Peru - and for an unexpectedly long stint, the multiple invisible worlds of Capitol Hill. In 1994, Robertson teamed up with future husband Michael Camerini, who had also been making films about cultures and political situations outside the US for years before they met. Their New York City production company is The Epidavros Project. Together they have filmed girls fighting for an education in Malawi, oilmen in Eastern Java, parliamentarians throughout Africa, coca growers in Peru's Upper Huallaga Valley, tribal elders in Northeast Guinea and a young rapper with a social mission in Niger - always working to understand and translate into film the life experience of their subjects. In 2000, they completed their first US collaboration, a searing in-depth study of the American political asylum system which became the basis for the ground-breaking documentary, "Well-Founded Fear". In the summer of 2001, still in the United States, they began following the path of a think tank idea about the right way to achieve a historic immigration reform - something that looked likely to become the law of the land within the year. It was a fast track deep into American politics, the most compelling and by far most complex culture they had ever tackled. Twelve years later, Epidavros debuted the full series of ten feature-length documentaries, "How Democracy Works Now" at the 51st New York Film Festival. Two years after that, the capstone of a 14-year ethnographic journey, their encore feature "Immigration Battle" also premiered at the 53rd New York Film Festival, followed by a special 2-hour national broadcast on PBS Frontline. In 2016, they returned to form with a film on Countering Violent Extremism, "Tales of Resilience" , shot in a place they still call The Country At The Center Of The World - Niger. But the recent US elections were a reminder they what they've learned about American politics can be more useful now than ever. New Projects are in the works.