ABOUT
Mia Boccella is a filmmaker, photographer, artist, life coach and equestrian.
Mia has been losing her vision for the past 30 years and she is now legally blind. Her visual limitations have challenged her and ultimately fueled her determination and creativity.
Mia loves to ride horses and when she has the opportunity to ride she regains her confidence and balance and can feel the pure joy and ultimate freedom that the horse gives to her.
Another source of her joy comes from intentional allyship and respectful advocacy for cultural preservation of Indigenous communities. She has a relationship with Diné (Navajo) and Pueblo tribes of New Mexico that spans 30 years.
Mia is based in Pittsburgh PA and spent ten years working on feature films in Santa Fe, NM. She founded Boccella Productions in 2005, produced two full length documentary films and In 2019 was invited to photograph at the inauguration of the first two Native American Congresswomen at the U.S. Capital in Washington D.C.
Most recently Mia was a 2022 recipient of the Getty Images Disability Community Grant and won 2nd prize for her proposal about The Blind Equestrian Community, of which she is a member. She has also been editing a book of street photography from the 1950’s in Pittsburgh.
Her films have been screened and broadcast Internationally in Australia, South Korea, China, Turkey and many other countries across Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Her films have also been used as educational tools by thousands of people in schools, universities, treatment and rehabilitation centers, prisons and Indigenous communities in the US and around the world.
Boccella Production’s first film, “When Your Hands are Tied” premiered at the Native American Film Festival in San Francisco in 2006 and received the Empowering Youth Award at the Sin Fronteras Film Festival and Best Native Women in Film and TV award at The Red Nation Film Festival. Her film “Elefamila” was a finalist at the International Wildlife Film Festival and was included in The Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival.
Mia received her Life Coach certification from Coach Training Alliance, a BFA cum laude from Carnegie Mellon University and studied Italian language at E.N.A.I.P. BOLOGNA in Bologna, Italy. Mia is a member of the Blind Equestrian Community, Documentary Filmmakers with Disabilities and the Italian American Advisory Council at the Heinz History Center. She has previously volunteered with the Native American Democratic Caucus of New Mexico, the Pittsburgh Public Schools to teach a documentary film class “Movies with a Message” and served on the board of the New Mexico Women’s Foundation.