Elise Coker is a Turkish Italian American documentary filmmaker, video journalist, writer and visual artist based between New York City and Taipei.
Elise’s documentary film work takes a character-driven and anthropological approach to documentary, with a focus on examining where ideology, tradition, and modern society intersect with human nature. She has directed short documentaries for media outlets including Topic, VICE Media, NBC News, Al Jazeera, PBS, and The New York Times. Her short film STALLIONS OF PALESTINE (Topic) premiered at Palm Springs International ShortFest and was a SIMA finalist in 2019 and is currently available to watch on Apple TV and Amazon Prime. Her video work for The New York Times won an Award for Excellence in Global Video Reporting from the Society of Publishers in Asia in 2022. She directed and worked on numerous short documentaries for NBC News, recognized by OPC of America and POYi. She worked as a cinematographer and editor on the Emmy Award-winning short documentary UNSAFE PASSAGE for The Guardian/Outlaw Ocean Project in 2021. Her documentary work in Alaska was supported by the Alaska Humanities Forum. Elise previously worked as a producer and editor at VICE Media, directing, editing and shooting numerous award-winning longform documentaries and series. She graduated with a B.A. in Media Studies from Pomona College in California.
Elise is directing an upcoming feature documentary project in Taiwan and a limited documentary series centered in Utah and Arizona.
As a visual artist, Elise’s paintings examine the anthropocene through visual representation. Her paintings tackle similar themes to those found in her film and journalism work, studying the impact of humans on our environment and our relationship to the land, in the past, present and future. Elise illustrates humanity’s marks of industry, infrastructure, technology and conflict to explore our physical and spiritual connection to our surroundings, rendering where banality touches transcendence. Elise’s work is journalistic, informed deeply by her documentary work and the environments she has encountered. By withholding detail, omitting the human form, and portraying only the structures we leave on the land, her paintings highlight the beauty and banality of our civilization juxtaposed against and interwoven into our planet.
Elise is co-writing a science fiction novel with her twin sister, Meryl.