Elizabeth Coffman is a documentary filmmaker and film scholar. She's published work in Camera Obscura, Journal of Film & Video and other places. Her film work has been broadcast and screened at festivals in Europe and the U.S. Elizabeth maintains messy homes in Chicago and in Tampa, where her two children live with their father during the week, and stay with her on the weekends. Elizabeth and her filmmaking partner have a media production company--Long Distance Productions.
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Long Distance Mom: International Women's Day
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By Elizabeth Coffman
March 10, 2010 11:37 am
March 8th was International Women’s Day (IWD), which seems appropriate after watching Kathryn Bigelow make Oscar history last weekend (rock on …). The IWD celebrations first started in 1910-11 and were recognized by the United Nations in 1975. Many countries around the world — China, Russia, Vietnam (not the U.S.)--celebrate IWD as a national holiday. Not surprisingly, Nicholas Kristof’s ...
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Long Distance Mom: Guns in Meetings
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By Elizabeth Coffman
February 24, 2010 9:52 pm
I hesitated to write on this topic because of the pain all of the affected families feel right now, including Amy Bishop’s. Unlike Libby Gruner’s reaction to the Bishop case -- “how unusual…for a woman on the tenure-track to have that many children” (perhaps my second thought…) -- my first reaction came after hearing that Bishop had shot her chair as well as other faculty members at a ...
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Long Distance Mom: Avatars and Earth Mothers
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By Elizabeth Coffman
February 11, 2010 7:49 am
The reviews of Avatar are in — the CGI effects are incredible, the motion captured acting is solid, but the story is mediocre and tends to repeat the Hollywood myth of the ‘white man as savior of indigenous people’ (a la Dances with Wolves). While the naïve portrayal of the Na’vi was questioned consistently by the mass media, other stereotypes in the film have barely been mentioned — ...
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Long Distance Mom: Drowning in Debt
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By Elizabeth Coffman
January 27, 2010 8:47 pm
It’s a humbling experience when you realize that, yes indeed, you are one of those over-educated Americans who can be taken in by an email that asks you for credit card information or by a telemarketing voice that promises to lower your interest rates if you will just provide them with your card number and zip code.As I was hitting myself over the head this week after being seduced into giving ...
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Long Distance Mom: Wonders of the World
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By Elizabeth Coffman
January 13, 2010 9:40 pm
One reason I’ve endured the long distance challenges of a commuting lifestyle for so long is the flexibility academic life offers for travel, research and interpersonal ‘reconnecting’ during school breaks. This holiday I’ve managed to do a satisfying bit in all three of these areas: --Long conversations with my sisters and my teenage daughter Katie, which included forgotten details about ...
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Long Distance Mom: Airports and Non-Places
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By Elizabeth Coffman
December 16, 2009 9:25 pm
What does ‘home for the holidays’ mean when you aren’t really sure where your home is located?Marc Auge’s book, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, begins with a description of a man driving to an airport, parking in “row J of underground level 2,” getting his boarding pass, leafing through magazines, and pleasantly boarding his flight. On the plane he leafs ...
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Long Distance Mom: Bra burning and Debutantes
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By Elizabeth Coffman
December 2, 2009 8:43 pm
“I am woman hear me snore.”I still own the cover to Helen Reddy’s much beloved 1972 album “I am Woman.” I remember singing the lines loudly with my sisters: “I am woman, hear me roar! In numbers too big to ignore, and I know too much to go back and pretend…”I was raised in a family of four sisters, (no brothers), with a mother who was fortunate enough financially to stay home with ...
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Long Distance Mom: Teen Zombies
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By Elizabeth Coffman
November 5, 2009 2:13 pm
Maybe it’s because it was just Halloween, but, for some reason, zombies seem to have surrounded me recently. My fourteen year-old daughter Katie wanted to go see Zombieland weekend before last. I voted for Amelia, thinking that would provide her with a more positive role model — “She just got into a plane and decided to fly it!” But a need for good humor, Katie’s desire for sleep, and ...
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Long Distance Mom: College Roommates
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By Elizabeth Coffman
October 22, 2009 8:22 am
A lot can be said about the ‘challenges’ of Facebook, but one of the great things about social media is that it puts you back in touch with old, college friends. (By ‘old’ I mean friends who attended college more than 20 years ago.) In a weird coincidence, I had two of my former undergraduate roommates come through Chicago during the past week.While visiting with these talented women — ...
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Long Distance Mom: Funding Mom's Degree
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By Elizabeth Coffman
October 8, 2009 11:43 am
Temperatures are on the rise as funds are sinking fast for college tuition.Recently, I was put in charge of developing a faculty proposal for a new graduate program in our School of Communication. (A project that is keeping me up at nights…) Not only is the field of communication in a state of ‘digital’ shock — newspapers are bankrupt, advertising is in trouble, Hollywood is facing ...
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