The Department of Communication Arts suffered a huge loss with the death of Professor Nietzchka Keene on October 20, 2004, after a brief but valiant battle with cancer.

Professor Keene was a distinguished filmmaker and dedicated teacher who had written, directed and produced three feature-length films.  Her first film, The Juniper Tree, was set and filmed in Iceland and starred singer-actress Bjork in her first film role.  Her second film, Heroine of Hell, was funded by a prestigious ITVS grant and aired on PBS, starring Catherine Keener, Wendy Phillips, and Dermott Mulroney.  At the time of her death, she had nearly finished production on her third film, Barefoot to Jerusalem¸ set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

At UW-Madison, she headed up the department’s video production courses, teaching advanced film and video production, screenwriting, and editing, and overseeing the production studios.  Her creative guidance shaped the lives of hundreds of students who passed through the production courses in the Comm Arts major; she was selective in whom she accepted into her courses and rigorous in her expectations.  She is greatly missed by her colleagues, friends, and students past and present.

“She had her own ideas and goals for what she wanted to accomplish and would follow them with intensity and strength,” said her friend and filmmaking partner Patrick Moyroud. “Not many people have produced, written and directed three feature films on budgets that would not even pay for a three-bedroom house today.”

The Department has organized a Nietzchka Keene Memorial Fund through the University of Wisconsin Foundation in her honor.  It will be used to provide an annual prize for excellence in undergraduate film and video production.  Contributions can be made to the fund by check, payable to the UW Foundation (UW Foundation, Gift Processing Department, P.O. Box 8860, Madison, WI 53708-8860), with a notation “for Nietzchka Keene Memorial Fund.”  One can also donate on-line at the UW Foundation's website. The form will already be designated to go to the Nietzchka Keene Memorial Fund.

On January 27 the department will hold an event in her honor, both in room 4070 Vilas Hall.  At 4:00, a joint departmental colloquium will screen her short film Aves (1994) and an hour-long version of Heroine of Hell (1995) with a discussion afterwards.  All students, colleagues, and friends are invited.  At 7:30 pm, the Communication Arts Cinematheque will screen The Juniper Tree (1989).