Norma Mejia

Norma Mejia is a Mexican-American photographer and filmmaker from Houston, Texas. She is pursuing a B.A. in Film and Media Studies with a certificate in Education Studies at Yale University. Her work explores the intersection of visual storytelling, analog photography, and experimental filmmaking, often centering on themes of memory, identity, and visual poetry. She has hands-on experience with 35mm film, DSLR cinematography, and digital editing using Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve. Her production experience spans from directing to cinematography and post-production. In 2024, Norma studied abroad at Universitat de Barcelona and the University of Cambridge. In Barcelona, she took courses in narrative and documentary filmmaking, where she directed and produced Gothic Flee, a short documentary exploring the story of a local vendor at the Mercado Gótic. Traveling across 10 countries in 8 months, she deepened her passion for photography, capturing everyday life through a lens. Inspired by this experience, she enrolled in a 35mm black-and-white photography course last fall, where she learned to shoot, process, and develop her own prints. Norma also engages with film theory to enrich her understanding of the medium. Her academic work has explored national cinemas, including German Expressionism and contemporary Spanish film. At Cambridge, she wrote two dissertations: Memory Fragmentation: Sans Soleil as a Cinematic Representation of War, which examines how Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil reveals new understandings of how war affects memory, collective consciousness, and its subtle permanence in everyday life. Her second dissertation, Hitchcock’s Gaze: Feminist Critiques of Psycho and Vertigo, challenges Hitchcock’s reputation as a feminist filmmaker. In Spring 2025, she conducted an independent study on Mexican Cinema, laying the groundwork for her senior thesis and creative project.   Beyond filmmaking, Norma is passionate about education equity and media accessibility. She has worked as a mentor for first-generation students, helping them navigate the college application process. In the future, she hopes to bridge film and education by creating spaces for young creatives to tell their own stories.