Mia Allen is a self-taught New York City-based filmmaker and photographer with a passion for meaningful and diverse storytelling. She works with individuals, commercial businesses, musicians, and freelance/agency producers to create visually-driven media and marketing materials including but not limited to: long and short-form promotional films, short documentary films, social media content, event documentation, behind the scenes photography, and natural-light portraiture.

Mia often sees a production through all of its stages, from concept to final edit and delivery. In post, she works with DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, and Lightroom. 

Mia has been selected for numerous awards for directing and editing by horticultural production company, PlantPOP including 2021 and 2022 Film of the Year awards. In 2023 her short film, Janelle Lynch: Endless Forms Most Beautiful, premiered in London at Flowers Gallery alongside the collection of work that the film was made about. 

Mia is currently working on her second short-documentary with multidiciplinarly designer, Sourabh Gupta, for which she traveled through central and northern India, filming Sourabh’s return to his roots after six years in New York City. The production is produced by PlantPOP and is currently in its final stages of production with a scheduled released in 2024.

Through all of her experience working with people and cameras, Mia has learned that effective storytelling is inherently personal and shows up for her work with an eagerness to find the aspects of relatability and connection at the heart of every project.

Please get in touch if you’d like more information about work history and experience.

Endorsements:

Janelle Lynch via Instagram
janellelynch.net

In May 2021, Mia introduced herself as a filmmaker who creates shorts about people’s love of plants for PlantPop, a horticultural film studio. She found me through Another Way of Looking at Love, my Radius Books monograph, and wanted to know if I would be the subject of a short. What was initially going to be a three-minute piece made in my studio, evolved into a sixteen-minute documentary made during two years. Janelle Lynch: Endless Forms Most Beautiful includes interviews and footage from Upstate New York, Amagansett, and the West Village. It tells the story of the making of a body of work in real time as I was just formulating the verbal and formal language for the ideas that were compelling me to work. Flowers Gallery, London, hosted a soft premiere during my solo show in June 2023. New York screenings are in the works for 2024.

While I’m the subject, the film is just as much about Mia as it is about me and my work. It became what it is because of Mia’s curiosity and ability to listen deeply. In front of her camera, I felt seen. That rare experience of attention, presence, and care enabled me to discover and articulate long held ideas about photography and myself as an image maker; what I was endeavoring to do in my work; and why. The film also became what it is because of Mia’s aesthetic sensibility and appreciation for beauty; because she’s a fighter and by default goes above and beyond; and perhaps because on some level she knows that through creating compelling, finely crafted, visually arresting stories about others, she herself is seen.

Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano, Hortus Arboretum
hortusgardens.org

OMG! What a sweet film you made about us! If truth be told we didn't think we gave you such good material to work with on our end, but what you did is wonderful. This is probably the first film of us, that shows that working couple aspect. Brava. Can't wait until we are able to share it with the public.

Art Parkerson, PlantPOP
plantpop.com

Wow! I just watched the Hortus film and I really LOVED this couple. You captured their personalities and their relationship so well. And, of course, their passion for plants. This film is so great. Thank you!

Carter and Todd, Hort & Pott
hortandpott.com

We have now had the great pleasure of working with Mia Allen twice on two separate short films and it’s been a pleasure to say the least. Prior to any shooting Mia started off the projects with a focused communication to develop an in depth understanding of the concept and subject matter; it was very professional that we could go into the filming because she built a project road map and took the time to learn about who we are and what we create in a genuine, curious manner. She exhibited great patience as we wrote back and forth to craft an outline together, refining it to use as the our guide for shooting; even this exercise was very instrumental in helping us further develop and express our thoughts and concepts. During shooting, Mia was very sensible, tactful and deliberate. It was very inspirational to see how her technical skills shone and how she explored some very interesting cinematography capturing beautiful moments and discovering other hidden gems and opportunities along the way. If there were any moments we specifically wanted to capture she was thrilled to pivot but like a good travel guide, we could trust following her lead as she was bringing in a fresh perspective to our world. Seeing things with a new shared lens was one of the great pleasures of working  with Mia. The editing process was a pretty seamless affair, Mia presented the first edit and from there we had a couple of ideas and bounced ideas. She is a great listener and glad to tailor the final edit to our needs, very patient with us too which put us all at ease since creating a short film is more work than I anticipated. It was really special to hear the unique score that she enlisted her talent to create for us, it spoke volumes to our brand identity and tied all her fantastic videography together. Overall working with Mia has been nothing short of professional, inspiring and a joy and we are proud of the work we’ve created together and look forward to doing so again.