Uplifted Ithaca logo - the word Uplifted is made of clouds, and the word Ithaca appears as shadows on the hills below

Documentary filmmaking and Aerial Video in Ithaca, NY and beyond

FEATURED VIDEOS 

AERIAL REEL 

VOICES ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD (2022)

Uplifted Ithaca contributed aerial video and photography for the website created by Cornell University’s Milstein Program in Technology & Humanity. Visit the  Voices on the Underground Railroad site to hear the imagined stories of people seeking haven from slavery in the Finger Lakes region.

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THE SHORTEST RIDE ON THE SHORTEST DAY (2020) 

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EMPOWERED (2012) 

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Services

Cinematography • Editing • Producing • Music Scoring

Empowering Women

Transportation Alternatives

Dance

Virtual Learning

Sustainability

Health

Music

Education

Anti-Racist

Food & Hospitality

Visual Arts

Real Estate

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About Shira

Shira Golding Evergreen (She/They) is a documentary filmmaker, graphic designer, writer and musician and the recipient of the 2019 “Artist in Community” Grant from the Tompkins County Community Arts Partnership for her documentary about Ithaca’s social-justice murals. She was the 2018 Ithaca Festival Artist. Her film Empowered: Power from the People (2012) screened at environmental film festivals around the country and abroad and was described by author Bill McKibben as “a remarkable ground-up account of the revolution that’s really starting to alter things on this earth.”
 
Shira graduated Magna Cum Laude from Cornell University and then moved to New York City with her partner Ari, where she worked as Director of Education and Outreach for Arts Engine, directing the Media That Matters Film Festival (best nonprofit/green website SXSW 2005) and traveling around the country to speak about grassroots film distribution, youth filmmaking and media justice.
 
After moving to Ithaca in 2008, Shira co-founded Share Tompkins, which facilitates sharing culture in Tompkins County, NY and was featured in The New York Times and Yes! Magazine. Shira’s design won the competition for the Ithaca Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Walkway, and the placards she made for T’ruah have appeared at protests around the country. Her photography has been featured at the Brooklyn Museum and on numerous websites including Engadget, NPR, TreeHugger and FILE Magazine. She has served on the boards of MIX NYC Queer Experimental Film Festival and Sustainable Tompkins.
 
With two decades of documentary filmmaking experience, Shira brings a cinematic eye and a passion for storytelling to her work with clients. She offers professional video and sound recording on the ground, with the Canon C300 Mark II and the Sony A7C, and in the sky with the DJI Mavic Pro 2 drone.* She can provide raw footage or edited films complete with music, text, and graphics.
 
Get in touch to get a quote or to set up a meeting to discuss your project.
 
 
*Apologies to those who are triggered by the word “drone.” I stand against the use of drones for violence and surveillance, while I embrace this technology for use in journalism, environmental activism, and documentary storytelling.
 
Shira Evergreen piloting her drone in front of a mural
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Testimonials

The National Women’s Hall of Fame worked with Shira to produce a number of videos and images that help us tell the story of our 53-year-old organization and the 302 exceptional Inductees we honor. Shira’s artistic skills brought to life our mission and helped introduce our work to a broad national audience. We are thrilled by our partnership with Shira and Uplifted Ithaca and look forward to many more collaborations in the future.”

 – Jennifer Gabriel, Executive Director, National Women’s Hall of Fame

 

Shira has been a pleasure to work with on a series of interviews and a video tour highlighting Get Your GreenBack Tompkins’ tiny home PowerHouse. She is responsive, accommodating, and went above and beyond to ensure we were happy with the finished product. Shira helped us articulate our vision for the videos, then made it reality! I especially appreciate her focus on centering social justice narratives and marginalized voices in environmental work.”

 – Emily Belle, Get Your GreenBack Tompkins, a project of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County

 

Shira Evergreen’s work has added significant value to our projects. Shira captured our need well and was able to deliver excellent work products. Their vision and storytelling is focused and compelling, their attention to production quality and artistry is excellent, their flexibility in edits and reworking is invaluable, and their ability to meet deadlines is admirable. Shira’s work is notable and has been complimented by attendees to our events. We look forward to working with Shira again on upcoming projects.”

 – Kris Valentine Behnke, Center for Technology Licensing at Cornell University

 

Shira has been tremendous to work with on our first ever organizational video. We are thrilled, but not surprised at the beautiful film Shira produced for us. She is a talented videographer and drone operator, passionate about environmental and social justice causes and clearly loves her work. It shows!”

 – Kaitlin Fello, Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association

 

Shira was an absolute delight to work with to create numerous videos featuring small businesses for our virtual conference. They turned out better than we could have hoped and she did an amazing job making our vision a reality.”

 – Kathleen Clark, Senior Director of Community and Economic Development, Alternatives Federal Credit Union

 

Uplifted’s Shira has helped me with puppet music videos, parade videos and video footage of my land and farm. She does am amazing job! Creative ideas for good shots, great editing, fun fonts, and she’s easy and calm to work with. She listens to what I need, and what I’m envisioning and adds her own ideas from her experience. It’s been a pleasure, and I look forward to working together again soon.”

 – Lily Gershon, LilyPad Puppet Theatre

 

Shira does spectacular work. Her videography and editing skills are outstanding, but perhaps even more important is her ability to craft a powerful narrative that, combined with imagery, makes a story sing. Can’t recommend highly enough.”

 – Kartik Sribarra, Danby Food & Drink

 

I truly value the opportunity I’ve had to collaborate with Uplifted Ithaca on several projects. Shira Golding Evergreen brought the perfect combination of compassion, professionalism, and creativity to help us achieve our video goals, and we are incredibly pleased with the final results.”

 – Sara Worden, Assistant Director of Community Engagement, Hospicare & Palliative Care Services

 

We’ve worked with Shira on two very different video projects for our non-profit (Bike Walk Tompkins) and we loved the way they turned out. The first one was for our Winter Solstice Lighted Bike Ride and Shira used her drone to incorporate some amazing shots that added another level of production quality well worth the value. Our second project was a last-minute fundraising call based on self-recorded videos and Shira was very responsive and provided a great product given the constraints that we had. We look forward to working with her again in the future.”

 – Hector Chang, Bike Walk Tompkins

 

Shira did my dance video justice. One of the greats in Ithaca. I also had a blast through the whole process.”

 – G-Quan Booker, Dancer, Teacher and Choreographer

 

Shira put together a series of 10 videos about our Finger Lakes Climate Fund and did an absolutely outstanding job! She worked extremely well with the many subjects in our videos and only needed a couple meetings to get a very good idea of the topics and desired outcome for each video. As a former board member of Sustainable Tompkins, she understands our mission and guided the interviewees in providing very natural explanations of their involvement in our program as donors, awardees, or contractors. We got a very high quality result without having to devote a lot of staff time to editorial control. Her work with her drone really added a lot of dynamic flavor and perspective to the finished products. We highly recommend Shira for your video needs!”

 – Gay Nicholson, Executive Director, Sustainable Tompkins

 

I keep coming back to Shira for my projects! Her skills as a videographer have far exceeded my expectations. Shira has worked on two of my dance and fitness videos and has proven to be very attentive to my requests. My work (literally) has a lot of moving parts which take up a very specific amount of space and Shira was able to work with the parameters beautifully in concise and creative ways. She is supportive, listens and has a great eye for seeing the full picture and capturing the essence of the work. I couldn’t be happier and I’m sure I’ll be working with her again!”

 – Kathy Lucas, Dance and Fitness Instructor

 

Shira is a pleasure to work with and her art captures a unique, captivating point of view. She is creative, thoughtful, patient and always looking for a new angle to convey the perspective. She is flexible, a great communicator and stretches the imagination to create a true treasure. I was so happy to be a part of her work and would absolutely recommend her to anyone who wants to work with someone who goes above and beyond!”

 – Marina Gershon, The Dacha Project

 

Shira did an amazing job for Civic Ensemble putting together our video of ‘Streets Like This’ in a very short amount of time. Shira listened deeply to what I was asking for, but she was also able to tune in to the subject and create something beautiful. In our case she took a live performance and edited it into a beautiful digital representation of our work. I can trust Shira’s judgment in making strong artistic choices. A dream to work with.”

 – Sarah Chalmers Simmons, Civic Ensemble

 

Shira made an exceptional drone video for my listing. She chose the right day and spent a lot of time making sure to display the property’s highlights. She was extremely communicative and timely getting it done as well as getting it edited and back to me for my listing. She is also competitively priced. I plan on using Shira for more of my listings and highly recommend her services.”

 – Havana Jorrin, Warren Real Estate

 

I have never been comfortable on video, but after working with Shira I feel so much better about the medium. She made me look better than I have a right to look, edited the footage into the perfect 5-minute video that made me sound smarter than ever, and the turnaround was lightning fast. In a different project, she managed to capture a large number of participants beautifully, despite challenging lighting conditions. Shira listens deeply, responds quickly, and has superb discernment and excellent taste. In short, Shira is a dream to work with, and we’re already plotting the next project together.”

 – Yael Daphna Saar, Mother Up! and Mother’s Comfort Camp

 

Hiring Shira was one of the best decisions that we made when it came to wedding vendors, and we don’t have enough words to adequately express our delight. They were professional, communicative, way ahead of schedule in delivering our final video, not to mention having sent wonderful “teaser” clips along the way! Our video is elegant, well constructed and shot, and truly captures the feel of our day! Shira is just such a good person, and they care so much about their work. We would get married all over again just to have another opportunity to work with them!”

 – Emma & Aimee, Married Summer 2021

 

It is refreshing to see, as a person that has many opportunities to present and speak on technical matters, such a quality representation of a speaking event. I was amazed at the many camera angles, and how well the PowerPoint presentation was followed, and I was quite impressed with the close-up shots of members of the audience that were asking questions. To say I’m pleased with the finished product would be an understatement. I am absolutely delighted and would highly recommend Shira Evergreen to anyone needing video production.”

 – Jay Egg, Geothermal Consultant and Engineer

 

We just had the privilege of using Shira’s stunning photography and videography/drone footage to list a house we put on the market. It had 1,300 views in four days and we had several people wanting the house before they physically got to step foot inside. We give so much credit to Shira for her talents and creative take on our home/property. We cannot wait to work with her again!”

 – Renee Smith Mooneyhan, Real Estate Client

 

Clients include Alternatives Federal Credit Union, National Women’s Hall of Fame, Visit Ithaca!, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Kitchen Theatre, Cornell Botanic Gardens, Ithaca Festival, Bike Walk Tompkins, Get Your GreenBack Tompkins, Cornell Center for Technology and Licensing, Tompkins County Health Department, Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival of Music & Dance, Ithaca Waldorf School, Durland Alternatives Library, Civic Ensemble, The History Center, Hospicare & Palliative Care Services, Sustainable Tompkins, HeatSmart Tompkins, Cornell Milstein Program in Technology & Humanity, The Cherry Arts, Village at Ithaca, The People’s Medicine School, Mama’s Comfort Camp (Mother Up!), LilyPad Puppet Theatre, Tracy Mitrano for Congress, Nelkin Designs, Ithaca Talent Education, Opera Ithaca, Travis Knapp, Kathy Lucas, G-Quan Booker, Havana Jorrin Real Estate and more!

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