About
In over three decades at The University of Michigan, first in the Communication Department and then in FTVM, Terri Sarris helped shape the FTVM Department's undergraduate curriculum, creating and teaching 20 original production and writing courses, from first-year seminars through advanced workshops, including sketch and situation comedy, experimental media, documentary, screendance, multi-camera TV production, and courses for WOLV-TV. Her former students have gone on to careers in all areas of media, including as Emmy-award winning directors, editors, producers and executive producers, writers, actors, television journalists, media teachers, scholars, and more. She was the faculty facilitatator for the EFEX Project, working with students to create Sultan's feature film Bilal's Stand, which screened in the program at Sundance in 2010. Terri received numerous grants and awards for innovative undergraduate teaching and advising, and was named a faculty fellow at the Bentley Historical Library, the CRLT Faculty Interdisciplinary Associates Program, and the National Center for Institutional Diversity.
Terri's creative work includes award-winning feature and short films (shot on 16mm, Super 8mm film, and digital media), film and television scripts, and work as a curator, programmer, film festival board member, and festival juror in the larger media community. Her toy and puppet film allegories, inspired by European stop-motion filmmakers, (Jiri Trnka, Ladislav Starevicz, and Jan Swankmeyer) have screened at Festivals and curated programs nationally and internationally. Terri performs original live scores for classic silent films with the musical toy trio "Little Bang Theory," the brainchild of award-winning composer, Frank Pahl. In fall 2022, LBT performed with Benshi Yamauchi Nanako to the classic Japanese experimental film A Page of Madness at Ann Arbor's Michigan Theater, with Theatre Gigante in Milwaukee, and at the Detroit Film Theater (Supported by the Center for Japanese Studies and curated by Mark Nornes). LBT has multiple bookings for 2024, including performances with the films "The Lodger" and "The Wind."
Terri retired from teaching in May 2023, with plans to write and make art, music, and film, full time. In October 2023, she was comissioned by the Ann Arbor District Library to produce, direct, and edit two films for the Ann Arbor Bicentennial:
https://aadl.org/annarbor200
Former Faculty Affiliations: Department of Dance, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, National Center for Institutional Diversity, Faculty Interdisciplinary Associates, Bentley Historical Library Fellows.
