Patricia R. Zimmermann

Patricia R. Zimmermann (February 10, 1955 – August 18, 2023) was an American festival director, programmer, scholar of home movies, amateur, community, participatory, and orphaned media; documentary and experimental film; film, video and digital history; feminist film theory; transnational political economy and national public policy; and digital cultures theory.

She was the Charles A. Dana Professor of Screen Studies in the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College where she had taught since 1981. She was also the Shaw Foundation Endowed Chair at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore in 2010, where she also taught as a Visiting Professor in 2002–2003. She was also a trainer and facilitator for SHOOT!2007 at the Nigerian Film Institute in Jos, Nigeria, in 2007.

She served on the Board of Trustees for International Film Seminars from 2005 to 2009. She had previously served as a trustee for the Robert Flaherty Documentary Seminars from 1989 to 1994, serving as Vice President from 1990 to 1993. She also served on the advisory boards for Center for African American Archival Preservation, Opera Ithaca, Women Make Movies, Northeast Historic Film, 7th Art Cinema Corporation, University Film and Video Association (UFVA), and Vermont International Film Festival. In addition, she served on the editorial board for ''Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism'', ''Film Quarterly'', ''Journal of Film and Video'', and ''The Moving Image''.

In 2024, the Flaherty Seminar and Visible Evidence partnered to co-create the Patricia Zimmermann Fellowship Fund to help emerging curators, scholars, artists, and historians of alternative and new media to attend either event: "As a connector and builder, Patty was an indomitable force in both our communities. She inspired and nurtured the intellectual and generative processes of so many scholars and artists while remaining curious and open to reinvention. Her legacy as an author, presenter, and visionary thought leader in the film world cannot be underestimated." Provided by Wikipedia