Artist Statement
Invoking perceptual awareness through embodied illusion is a crucial part of my process in my camera operating and in my dance praxis. My orientation in life is queered, thus my focus in creating “the shot” or “the movement” is based in the queer phenomenology of arrivals in capitalistic structures. Through these structures, I intend to alter perception through choreographic illusion. I want to inspire the audience to question themselves and their perception of how a performative apparatus and audiences can arrive into a space together with similar and differentiating prejudices. Similarly, in my camera operating and directing, I love making my audience see what they’ve already been seeing but cast in a different light: a light that isn’t the immediate expectation. I intend to continue to curate a personal praxis through illusioned embodiment and light, both theoretical and material, to create awareness in the breakdown of social and political structures in both my operating and moving.
Bio
Joey J. Haley is a genderfluid Director, Steadicam operator & dance creative who is from New Hampshire and Fortaleza, Brazil. He graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a BFA in film and dance. In both disciplines, her work focuses on showcasing deeper societal politics. She studied abroad in Prague for a semester at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) and studied with a Sarah Lawrence College feature film program in 2019. Off the Air, a directed and choreographed interdisciplinary project, was showcased and won the “Best of Mount Holyoke” award in the Five College Film Festival (2019) and screened at the Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival (2019). In 2021, Joey won an "Excellence in Cinematography" award for Best Camera Motion in Smashed, presented by Cynthia Pusheck ASC. Joey has operated Steadicam in a variety of media over the last several years; most notably Lucia di Lammermoor at the LA Opera, Dorian Electra, Sinhead Hartnett and upcoming features; Decibel and She’s the He. She’s been invited to speak at many events including FLUX’s Trans Film Production Panel at Los Angeles’ Connie Norman Trans Empowerment Center speaking on being a trans Steadicam Op and Director, “Crafting A Life In the Art’s” panel at Mount Holyoke College, and lead a talk on “Steadicam X Dance” at the University of California Santa Barbara (2023). Joey is an award winning two time feature writer with both projects in development on an international scale and Los Angeles directorial debut short film Spies In Corsets (2025). In the middle of all of this, she is spearheading a Los Anglese’s Trans & Non-Binary centered Film Festival for the years to come in a time that it is most needed.
Joey's personal film work has been filmed, featured, and presented on a global scale. One of Joey's best produced documentary shorts, Students and Stress, made it to New Hampshire's Student Film Festival in 2015. An interdisciplinary project encompassing film and dance, Off the Air has been showcased and won the “Best of Mount Holyoke” award in the Five College Film Festival (2019) which lead to show in the Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival (2019). Off the Air has also screened at MHC's electronic music concert and Prague’s underground Queer Klub screening with FAMU students (2018). Working on the set of Martin Eden shortly after lead to Joey’s Steadicam training in the summer of 2019 in NYC with Abel Cine and and later, his training for the TRINITY in late 2020. A few years later, in 2022, he trained again with the Steadicam Operators Association- training with some of the best- which then lead to another in-depth course on the Trinity at ARRI where he met and then worked with some of the best camera operators. In 2021, Joey won an Excellence in Cinematography award for Best Camera Motion presented by Cynthia Pusheck ASC for the WiM short Smashed .
Joey's performance work has been featured at Mount Holyoke's Fall Faculty Dance (2016 with Paul Matteson, 2017 with Shakia Johnson , and 2019 with Barbie Diewald), Senior (2017), and Student (2018) dance concerts. He's also been taught by J9 and Yanis Marshall at the Broadway Dance Center in NYC. Joey showcased his first choreographed piece in April 2018 at Mount Holyoke's student concert Affinity with Off the Air . Spring of 2019, he started choreographing dances for film sets as seen in Martin Eden. During this time, they worked alongside Wellesley student photographer, Taylor Balfour, in preparation for their research for their capstone performance which focused on contorting the theater apparatus in light of political, communal, and institutional perspective tied in with the identities that our bodies and histories hold. This piece showcased at Mount Holyoke College Senior dance concert, Prime Departure, on March 11th- one month earlier due to the COVID-19 crisis. Now, along side camera operating, she choreographs for film behind the camera and continues the practice through capoeira.