Kristin Zahra says she knew from a young age that she wanted to work in film. “Maybe, 12 to 13ish? I remember really loving Pixar animation film shorts,” she says. “So I had a desire to do more of the 3D animation work.”
Despite her dad’s urging to go into engineering, Zahra attended College of Saint Mary and earned her bachelor’s degree in computer graphics.
“He was a civil engineer and also tried to get all my sisters to pursue that path,” she says. “He was one in four for that battle.”
After graduation, Zahra went on to Vancouver Film School, which she says was a great option for her.
“Their program is unique in that it’s essentially a condensed version of traditional four-year film schools. It made a lot of sense to me, being able to invest one year solely to focusing on film, and I viewed it as an opportunity to really do something challenging and completely out of my comfort zone.”
While at film school, she studied 3D animation and visual effects, and kind of fell in love with the city and Canada.
“Vancouver’s film scene was really apparent when I was there, which heightened the experience in a lot of ways,” she says. “My two roommates were extras and had boyfriends that were stuntmen, one was a screenwriter—I’m guessing a lot like L.A. in that way.”
After film school, Zahra moved around the country—Chicago, Houston, New York City, Norfolk (yes, Nebraska)—but she ended up back in Omaha in 2011. She says she knew she would be “calling this home again for quite a while.”
Like most creatives, Zahra struggled when she first started working in the industry. Since she didn’t live in Los Angeles or a place more conducive to filmmaking, she was using her animation degree more in advertising and motion graphics than anything else.
“I realized there was something missing for me,” she says. “What drew me into film was just how alive I felt when I was able to tell stories.”
Over the last few years, she’s been trying to get back into that. She started reaching out to, and trying to work with, local filmmakers.
Which is how she ended up working with Shelly Hollis on his project, The Black O, a film about black crime in Omaha.
Strangely enough, the two happened to run into each other on the street. Zahra says they met one night at a falafel truck downtown. They started talking while waiting for their food and he told her he was in town visiting his family and filming a documentary.
“It piqued my interest and we got to talking more about the work I did and wanting to be involved in film here in Omaha,” she says. “I had been searching for people to collaborate with, especially on film projects that come from a sincere and honest place.”
Hollis’ background is rooted more in the documentary format, which Zahra says brought her back to some of that storytelling she was missing.
For his documentary, Hollis says they spoke with people in the black community—victims of gang violence, ex-gang members, and city council members—and asked them what they thought the issues were.
“We wanted to give the people their voice, to identify their own problems,” he says.
His passion for the project interested Zahra from the start.
“Shelly is that person, void of ego, and his intentions for the film had inspired me from our first conversation,” she says. She adds that working with Hollis, whom she describes as an “exceptional filmmaker,” has been an honor and he has reminded her not to underestimate her skills.
The admiration is mutual. Hollis says Zahra helped him out a lot with the film. “She’s awesome,” he says. “Just incredible."
“So yeah,” Zahra says, “it seems we were meant to meet, being that we shared an interest in both film and a good falafel pita."
While The Black O is in its editing process, Zahra still has to make her money. “I keep moving with my projects, that’s for sure.”
She says she continues to do a lot of animation designs that are strictly for income, but adds that she is currently working on a new passion project with a production/animation studio, Edison Creative.
"For me, the passion I have for filmmaking includes that feeling I get when I'm on a set collaborating with a crew or in a studio working on animation or post-production."
She says this current project is more of a cartoon piece. "It's got a lot of potential. I’m really excited for it.”
Visit kristinzahra.com for more information.
This article published in the September/October 2017 edition of Encounter magazine.
