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Profile

College / Department

College of Arts and Sciences

Department of Media Communication

Teaching areas

Screenwriting, Film Production, Interactive Media, Critical Theory, Documentary Practices

Research areas

Disidentification, Diasporic Filmmaking, Third Culture Identity, Media Arts Practices, Cosmology

Education

PhD, Emergent Technologies And Media Arts Practices, University of Colorado Boulder, United States, 2022

MA, Communication, Culture & Technology, Georgetown University, United States, 2015

BA, International Studies, Emory University, United States, 2009

Memberships

International Documentary Association, IDA, International, September 2018

The Gotham Film and Media Institute, The Gotham, International, July 2018

Middle Eastern Studies Association, MESA, International, February 2014

Dallas Film, Local, February 2013

Contact

[email protected]

Bentley Brown

Assistant Professor

PhD, University of Colorado Boulder, United States

Bentley Brown is a filmmaker and scholar whose work revolves around disidentification, language, and artistic translations of science. A Berlinale Talent, Durban Talent, and Africa Movie Academy Awards nominee, Brown’s past films include Behind the Sun (Hot Docs 2023), First Feature (International Film Festival Rotterdam 2019), and Oustaz (Berlinale 2016). Brown holds a PhD in Emergent Technologies and Media Arts Practices from the University of Colorado Boulder and has served as an Assistant Professor at the American University of Sharjah since 2023.

Publications

Bentley Brown. “Despite the Distance Between Us”: Challenging Narratives and Imagining Homeland through Filmmaking-in-Exile, Tbd

Bentley Brown. "Sudan's 'diaspora' dilemma: Filmmaking amid the collapse of homeland", June 2024

Bentley Brown. Doctoral Dissertation - Emergent Technologies & Media Arts Practices at CU Boulder: "Revolution From Within: Imagining the Possibilities of Disidentification", April (2nd Quarter/Spring) 2022

Bentley Brown. "Do You Consider Yourselves 'Arab'? Hybridized Identities and Questions of Belonging in 'Revolution From Afar'", December 2021

Bentley Brown. "Revolution From Afar: Disidentificatory Discourses in the Diaspora"

Bentley Brown. "An African Film Manifesto, Forty Years Later", 13 March 2019

Bentley Brown. "The disidentification of Mahamat Saleh Haroun", 22 January (1st Quarter/Winter) 2019

Conference Presentations

"Can Art & Astrophysics Co-exist?", Faculty Lectures In Media Communication, February 2026

"Screening Sudan", Seeing Sudan - Politics Through Art (hiwaarat), September 2025

"Filmmaking Amid Sudan's War", Faculty Lecture Series In Media Communication, 8 April 2025

"Intermittent River" at UTD, 4 March 2025

"We're the New Colonizers: Sudan's Filmmaking Community's Newfound Diasporic Identity in the Wake of War", Visible Evidence Xxx, 18 December 2024

"Intermittent River" at AUS, 27 November 2024

Grants and sponsorships

Grant, Faculty Research Grant (FRG26), American University of Sharjah, 2026 - 2028

Grant, 421 Artistic Research Grant, 421, April 2025 - December 2025

Grant, Faculty Research Grant, American University of Sharjah, 1 June 2024 - 31 May 2025

Grant, Graduate Student Creative Project, "Behind the Sun", Department of Critical Media Practices, University of Colorado - Boulder, December 2021 - May 2022

Grant, Mimesis Documentary Grant, "Revolution From Afar", Mimesis Documentary Festival, University of Colorado - Boulder, January 2020 - June 2020

Grant, Sterling Scholarship, "Revolution From Afar", College of Media, Communication, and Information, University of Colorado - Boulder, February 2019 - May 2020

Awards and Honors

Best Short Film for "Guardian of the Well", Thin Line Fest, 2025

International Documentary Award for "Guardian of the Well", Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, 2025

Artistic Research Grant, 421 Arts Campus, The 421 Artistic Research Grant supports practice-based research investigating contemporary social questions through interdisciplinary methodologies and active engagement with the researcher’s community., May 2025

Africa Movie Academy Award (AMAA) for Best Short Film for "Set Pieces", Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), 2024

Nominated for Best Short Documentary, "Behind the Sun", Dallas International Film Festival, 2024

Nominated for Best Short Documentary, "Set Pieces", Bergen International Film Festival, 2024

Nominated for Best Short Documentary, "Set Pieces", Mimesis Documentary Festival, August 2024

Nominated for Best Short, "Behind the Sun", Hot Docs International Canadian Documentary Festival, 2023

Nominated for Best Film, "Behind the Sun", Camden International Film Festival, September 2023

Nominated for Best Feature Documentary, "Revolution From Afar", Denton Black Film Festival, 2021

Nominated for Best Feature Documentary, "Revolution From Afar", Twin Cities Black Film Festival, 2021

Nominated for Best Feature Documentary, "Revolution From Afar", Zanzibar International Film Festival, 2021

Winner, Best Feature Documentary, "Revolution From Afar", Hip Hop Film Festival, 2021

Finalist (touring films), "Revolution From Afar", Global Migration Film Festival, United Nations International Organization of Migration (IOM), 2020

Nominated for Best Diaspora Documentary, "Revolution From Afar", Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), 2020

Nominated for Best Documentary, "Revolution From Afar", Silicon Valley African Film Festival, 2020

Nominated for Best Feature Documentary, "Revolution From Afar", DC Black Film Festival, 2020

Nominated for Best Feature Documentary, "Revolution From Afar", Mimesis Documentary Festival, 2020

Winner, Best Student Documentary, "Revolution From Afar", San Antonio Black International Film Festival, 2020

Winner, Documentary Feature Prize, "Revolution From Afar", Sabira Cole Film Festival, 2020

Honorable Mention, Best Documentary Short, "Khawadjat", Le Petit Cannes, 2018

Nominated for Best Festival Theme Short: Women’s Empowerment, "First Feature", Artists Forum Festival of the Moving Image, 2018

Winner, Best Director, "Terrorist Number Four", Austin Comedy Short Film Festival, 2018

Winner, Best Short Documentary, "First Feature", Berlin Motion Picture Festival, 2018

Closing Night Film, "Oustaz", Sudan Independent Film Festival, 2017

Nominated for Best Documentary Short, "Khawadjat", Dallas International Film Festival, 2016

Nominated for Golden Bear, "Oustaz", Berlinale - Berlin International Film Festival, 2016

Winner, Spirit of the Festival, "Oustaz", Brooklyn Film Festival, 2016

Durban Talent, Durban International Film Festival, 2015

Berlinale Talent, Berlinale - Berlin International Film Festival, 2014

Winner, Best in Show, "Faisal Goes West", Texas Independent Film Festival, 2013

Mention d'honneur, Best Digital Feature, "Le Pèlerin de Camp Nou (Captain Majid)", Vues d'Afrique, 2009