Jesse McLean is a media artist and educator whose research is motivated by a deep curiosity about human behavior and relationships, especially as presented and observed through mediated images. Interested both in the power and the failure of the mediated experience to bring us together, McLean's work asks the viewer to walk the line between voyeur and participant. She has presented her work at museums, galleries, and film festivals worldwide, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Venice Film Festival, Italy; Transmediale, Berlin; 25 FPS Festival, Zagreb, Croatia; European Media Arts Festival, Osnabrück, Germany; Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis; Interstate Projects and PPOW Gallery, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit; Gallery 400, Chicago; Impakt, Utrecht, The Netherlands; CPH:DOX, Copenhagen; Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, Kassel, Germany; and the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH. McLean is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature at University of Iowa.
2026PlaceholderMovieas Self · Director
2023Light NeedsMovieDirector · Producer
2020Curious FantasiesMovieDirector
2017Wherever You Go, There We AreMovieDirector
2015I'm in Pittsburgh and it's RainingMovieDirector
2013Just Like UsMovieDirector · Cinematography · Editor · Writer
2011Lose YourselfMovieDirector
2011RemoteMovieDirector
2009Somewhere Only We KnowMovieDirector
2009ClimbingMovieDirector
2009The Burning BlueMovieDirector
2008The Eternal Quarter InchMovieDirector