Evan Bode
Department of Film and Media Arts
Instructor, Film and Computer Art and Animation

Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse, NY 13244
Embracing independent, handcrafted and hybrid modes of production, Bode approaches film as a personal language to explore themes related to nonbinary gender identity, neurodivergence, mental health, artistic expression and imagination as a tool of resistance to oppressive norms. Their original style of storytelling breaks binaries through a playful mix of mediums, departing from realism and blurring the distinction between outer worlds and inner ones.
Bode graduated from Syracuse University with an M.F.A. in film in 2023, earning a Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence in Graduate Research and an Outstanding TA Award. In 2020, he graduated with honors from Colorado State University with a B.A. in communication studies and minors in sociology, English and film studies.
Bode’s first film, “Thine Own Self,” earned recognition as a national winner of the Gotham Institute’s 2021 Student Showcase, sponsored by JetBlue and Focus Features, a success featured in Filmmaker Magazine. The same film screened internationally at dozens of festivals, including Animafest Zagreb—one of the most prominent festivals on the global animation festival circuit since its founding in 1972.
Bode’s second film, “A Spot for Frog,” was met with similar acclaim, including a Director’s Choice Award in the Thomas Edison Film Festival’s 42nd edition, Best Animation at the New Jersey International Film Festival and a screening at the world’s largest LGBTQ+ film festival, Outfest L.A., where one attending film critic named it in a review as “not only my favorite Outfest L.A. 2023 short, but one of my favorite shorts of all time.” The film also joined Teen Screen’s library of films that promote cultural awareness, empathy and acceptance of diversity for use in K-12 classrooms.
In 2024, along with Mišo Suchy and Lida Suchy, Bode co-founded Teens with a Movie Camera, a collaborative media workshop that seeks to empower the visions and voices of underrepresented high school students in the city of Syracuse, New York, in connection with SU Engaged Humanities, a CNY Arts GRACE Grant, VPA, the SOURCE, and the Northside Learning Center for immigrant and refugee youth. As the program’s co-leader and main editor, Bode arranged teen work into two collective video collages that have premiered publicly on the façade of the Everson Museum of Art, in affiliation with internationally recognized media organizations Light Work and Urban Video Project.
In addition to teaching courses, workshops and a Summer Film Academy at Syracuse University, Bode has presented artist talks, animation workshops and guest lectures by special invitation at other schools, including Cornell University, Baltimore School for the Arts, the WQED Film Academy, the Dignity for Children Foundation in Malaysia, DePauw University and OCAD University in Toronto.
Education
- M.F.A., Syracuse University
- B.A., Colorado State University