About the artist
Michelle Memran is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, and dementia advocate who uses collaborative storytelling to drive social change. As a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at UCSF’s Global Brain Health Institute, her practice focuses on dismantling the pervasive stigma surrounding Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias by amplifying the agency and voices of those living with a diagnosis.
Before dedicating her career to film and advocacy, Michelle worked as a reporter and researcher for Newsweek, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times Magazine. Her acclaimed feature documentary, The Rest I Make Up — a decade-long collaboration with visionary Cuban-American playwright María Irene Fornés during her years living with Alzheimer’s — premiered at MoMA and was named one of “The Best Films of 2018” by The New Yorker.
Currently, she is developing several independent documentary projects, and Let This Be a Symphony, a multimedia campaign dedicated to reframing cultural perceptions of cognitive change. She divides her time between New York and San Francisco.
Learn more about Michelle’s work: michellememran.com • @memranny on Instagram • LinkedIn
Final project
Coming soon: Read about Past Advocacy, Future Change: HIV/AIDS Campaigns Transforming Dementia Narratives and learn more about Michelle’s residency.
Workshops
Michelle developed and led the following workshops throughout the residency.
- Finding Our “We” Forward: Who Tells the Story of Brain Change, and Why Language Matters (April 15, 2026)
- Past Advocacy, Future Change: HIV/AIDS Campaigns Transforming Dementia Narratives (September 23, 2026)
News stories
Michelle published the following stories throughout the residency.
- Meet the 2025 UCSF Library Artist in Residence (published August 26, 2025)
- WE as a way forward: Notes from the HIV/AIDS Epidemic Collection (published February 17, 2026)