Crystal Kayiza is an artist and filmmaker based in New York City. She is a member of the New Negress Film Society and recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Creative Capital Award, the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, and the Sundance Ignite Fellowship.
Her most recent film, Rest Stop, premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and won the 2023 Jury Prize for Best US Short Film at the Sundance Film Festival. Her short, See You Next Time, was an official selection of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and released by The New Yorker. Her film, Edgecombe, was an official selection of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was distributed by POV. Named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” Kayiza is currently in production on her first feature film.
At MacDowell, she developed a feature film focused on birthing, belonging, and a memory shared between two women.
Crystal Kayiza
Studios
Putnam
Crystal Kayiza worked in the Putnam studio.
Originally known simply as Graphics Studio, this building was converted to its current use between 1972 and 1974 through a grant from the Putnam Foundation. Before this transformation, the building served as both a powerhouse and pump house for the property. Well water was drawn from a large cistern and…