Carl Elsaesser

Carl Elsaesser, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Film, was awarded a 2026 Creative Capital Award for his feature-length, untitled film project that uses footage from the past decade to shape a coming-of-age narrative. Blending video diaries, ethnography and fiction, Carl’s film follows Ellis, a queer boy documenting his family’s frustrations and emerging sense of self.

Carl was awarded the fellowship for his project Resonant Coastlines, a feature-length experimental film that tethers a young man’s emerging queer identity—captured in his stream-of-consciousness filmmaking practice—to Maine’s unseen histories and forgotten landscapes.