Eliaichi Kimaro

Eliaichi Kimaro is the founder of 9elephants productions, a company that uses film to bring stories of struggle, resistance, and survival to a broader audience. She produced over 80 videos for local and national non-profits addressing social and economic justice issues. She is the director of the Award-winning documentary A Lot Like You, and her 5-year festival/campus/conference lecture tour culminated in her 2016 TEDxSeattle talk, “Why the World Needs Your Story.”

For the past 40 years, Eliaichi has explored her personal/family narrative through writing, photography, music, film, and most recently, encaustic mixed media painting. She is a self-taught artist who will learn whatever medium it takes to tell the story that’s emerging. As she mines these narratives, she uses art to shine a light in the dark corners of half-told truths and shame-filled silence. Art illuminates the complexities of the story, with all its messy, complicated, conflicting truths.