Maria Finitzo is a photographic artist, filmmaker, writer and educator based in Chicago, Illinois. Her filmmaking careers spans over 30 years, resulting in a body of work that has won every major broadcast award including the George Foster Peabody Award and the Alfred E duPont Award. Her films have screened in festivals and theaters around the world and are novelistic in their structure, providing multiple points of connection for an audience. Finitzo allows the narrative arc of her character’s story to evolve, colliding with other subjects from the film, creating a complex, nuanced story that serves as a vehicle to deepen our understanding of society through everyday human drama.
After completing her last film, THE DILEMMA OF DESIRE which premiered at SXSW, Maria decided to return to photography, an early love, to explore the power of visual narratives. She has taught at The Santa Fe Workshops. She has studied with Maggie Taylor, John Paul Caponigro, Susan Burnstine, Holly Roberts, Reid Callanan, Rania Matar, Keith Carter, Elena Dorfman, Connie Imboden, Kate Breakey, Greg Gorman, Jay Maisel, John Sexton and Ernst Haas.
