Pro
Tamika Guishard
Pedagogical storyteller creating media that shifts canons to amplify & rectify marginalized voices of the past and present for a brighter future.
Biography
Tamika's a first-generation Brooklynite from St. Kitts & Nevis. With the mind of a (Park) Ranger, heart of a teacher and soul of a dancer, she taught middle school before completing NYU Graduate Film. She fuses storytelling and pedagogy from The Studio Museum in Harlem to Leech Lake Reservation and Tribeca Film Institute. For freshly centering marginalized voices, she’s funded as a “++Newark Culture Hero++” through Prudential.
Selected for the inaugural ++Cannes Screenplay List++ and ++Breaking Through the Lens++, her African dance-driven feature-length project was showcased at TIFF, supported by Rooftop Films and NYSCA, and recipient of Digital Bolex's inaugural Women Cinematographers Grant. The project’s been revamped since participating in IFP Week, with RHYTHM IN BLUES’ latest teaser featuring Beyoncé collaborator and Emmy Award-nominated choreographer Jeffrey Page. Oscar-qualifying festival selections, both of its ++proofs of concept++ were shot, written, directed, and co-produced by Black women. Its latest, “++Black++,” her first experimental piece shot at African Burial Ground National Monument - where she produced webisodes for Ken Burns' PBS National Parks docuseries and her award-winning series pilot inspired by her experiences as a Park Ranger is also set - is still on the festival circuit and was awarded Most Innovative and Trend-Setting.
Cultivating herstory and “ourstory” in front and behind the camera, Tamika's been published and featured at Center for Educational Policy Research and SXSWedu as a “pedagogical filmmaker.” She’s fellowshipped with Black Women Film! Canada, Athena Film Festival's inaugural LA Writers Lab and Residency Unlimited. The first Black Communications ++professor at Adelphi University++, Tamika won the Governor’s Office’s "++Celebrate Equality NY Film Challenge++” with her story honoring the state’s rich cultural history through an LGBTQ lens.
Tamika’s ideated multimedia social justice ++curricula for Ghetto Film School++ and youth employment agencies amidst pandemic uprisings. Based in her hometown of NYC, ++Guishard Films++–a certified Minority and Women-owned business enterprise–also partners with forward-thinking organizations for pedagogical storytelling that enhances public good.