Elliat Graney-Saucke (she/they) is a White queer femme documentary filmmaker based in Seattle on Coast Salish lands. Over 27 years, Elliat has produced award-winning media in 10+ countries, including 20+ short films such as The Resilience of King Khazm (SIFF/Alaska Airlines) and the feature Travel Queeries, which premiered at BFI London in 2009 and toured 13 countries.
Elliat’s work applies a queer lens to marginalized cultural identity, exploring immigration, incarceration, gender and racial identity, creative expression, and political histories. Their current feature documentary Boys on the Inside builds on 17 years of research and relationship building that began during their work as a prison arts program manager in Washington’s women’s prisons.
Elliat has received the Artist Trust Fellowship, Gap Grant, Millay Artist Retreat, and grants from King County 4Culture, Seattle Office of Arts and Culture and SIFF/Satterberg Foundation. Guest artist residencies include Universities of Vienna, Saarbrücken, Minnesota, and Washington.
As University of Washington faculty teaching Ethics of Storytelling and Foundations of Documentary Storytelling and as instructor for Washington State Art Commission’s Change Leader Institute, Elliat works with decolonizing media practices, ethics and leadership, cultural policy, and critical heritage through media production and event curation.