Elizabeth Bird ’90

Elizabeth Bird ’90, of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.; Mar. 28. For more than 20 years she taught courses on film, media, and art history at UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, California College of the Arts, and San Francisco Art Institute. She was passionate about the intersection of media and social issues, especially immigration rights. Having spent a summer in Mexico during high school and a year in Colombia and Peru in college, she developed a special connection to the struggles of disenfranchised peoples throughout Latin America. As a filmmaker, she is best known for her feature-length 2004 documentary Everyone Their Grain of Sand, which examines the impact of globalization on land ownership in northern Mexico with a focus on Tijuana’s Maclovio Rojas community. The film won several awards, including the Target Jury Award for Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Film Festival. An early proponent of marriage equality, she toured the country during the mid-1990s with her advocacy video Love Knows No Borders, which features transnational LGBTQ+ couples discussing the discrimination of U.S. marriage laws. She also worked as a producer for documentary film and television and served on the board of directors of the International Documentary Association (2007-2015). She was an avid hiker, birder, and cross-country skier and enjoyed watching her son’s soccer games and violin concerts. She is survived by her wife, Betti-Sue Hertz; a son; a brother and sister-in-law Rebecca MacDonald ’87; and two nieces.