Jo Leslie "Joelle" Collier

Dr. Jo Leslie "Joelle" Collier died peacefully at her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Saturday, December 6, 2025.

Joelle was born in Abingdon, VA on October 3, 1950. Her childhood was spent in the towns of Radford, Christiansburg, and Blacksburg, in SW Virginia. After graduating from Christiansburg High School in 1969, she attended Ohio University, where she earned a BFA in Theatre, specializing in acting & directing, and an MA in Theatre History & Dramatic Literature. At OU, she directed productions of Buchner’s Woyzeck and Zindel’s And Miss Reardon Drinks A little (in which she also acted) in the Lab Theatre and Lizard for the OU Playwrights Workshop. After completing her Master’s Thesis, A History of The Barter Theatre, she took a position as House Manager there for the 1974 season. She next served as the Scene Shop Foreman and Adjunct Instructor in the Theatre Dept. of the U. of Alabama for the following academic year. Additionally, that year, she served as the Stage Manager and Technical Director for the Tuscaloosa Community Players and directed Shaw’s Don Juan In Hell. She then entered the U. of Oregon to pursue her PhD as a Graduate Teaching Fellow. While at U of O, she co-wrote and directed an original adaptation of Stoker’s Dracula for Carnival Theatre, the Theatre Department’s Summer Stock series. After completing curricula in both theatre and film, she took a position on the faculty of Eckerd College for the 1980-81 academic year, where she directed a production of Gorki’s The Lower Depths.

She then took a two-year hiatus in Europe. While there, she served as a consultant for Athens College [ Kollegion Aqenon] in equipping their new theatre; served as an instructor at the University of LaVerne’s campus in Athens, Greece, and at the US Naval Base in Marathon, Greece; and tutored Greek students preparing for the Cambridge Proficiency Examination in English in order to qualify for university admission. She then returned to the U of Oregon to complete her dissertation and was awarded a PhD in Telecommunication and Film in 1985. She then joined the faculty of the Dept. of Theatre & Film at the U. of Toledo, where she served for six years, rising from Assistant Professor to tenured Associate Professor. During her time at this institution, she taught courses in both film and theatre. As a member of the directing faculty, she directed Stoppard’s Travesties, Artaud’s Ubu Roi, and Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing for the stage, and adapted, directed, produced and co-edited O’Neill’s The Rope for video.

She left the U of Toledo in 1991, to join the faculty of The College of Santa Fe as it was embarking on the development of a film department. She continued there until 2009, when the college closed, a victim of the Great Recession. During her 18 years, she served in digerent capacities. She held the position of Acting Chair during the spring semester of 1992. During that period, the department was renamed. Originally called the Communications Department, its name was changed to Moving Image Arts at her suggestion. She again served as Acting Chair in the 1993-94 academic year and afterward served intermittently as Assistant Chair for a total of 10 years. 

While she taught a wide range of courses in film history, theory, and critical studies over the years, she specialized in Chinese-language cinema, concentrating on the film industry of Hong Kong. For this subject, she spent her 1998-99 sabbatical in East Asia, where she conducted research at the national film archives in Taipei, Beijing, and Hong Kong; she was a guest at the 3rd Pusan (South Korea) International Film Festival and attended the 22nd Hong Kong International Film Festival. She extended her research with regular screenings at the HK Film Archives, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Broadway Cinematheque, and Cine-Art House. She also went “under cover” to examine Hong Kong filmmaking at first hand, by serving as an “extra” in two films: Vincent Kok’s GORGEOUS (with Jackie Chan and Shu Qi) and Joe Ma’s AFRAID OF NOTHING, THE JOBLESS KING (with Gigi Leung). To continue her research, she took a leave of absence from CSF for a semester in 2002 to return to Hong Kong. During that period, she participated in the Jeonju (South Korea) International Film Festival, providing English translation of program text; and attended the 26th Hong Kong International Film Festival. She returned to East Asia in 2005 to attend the Gwangju (South Korea) International Film Festival, and to present a paper at the Centennial Celebration of Chinese Cinema in Beijing and Shanghai. A member of Asian Cinema Studies Society, an international association of scholars of Asian film, she was chosen to be Vice-Chair in 2010 and served until 2020. During that time, she attended the society’s annual meetings— in Toronto, Pusan/Busan, Jeonju, Beijing, Shanghai, Seattle, Gwangju. Her publications include articles in Asian Cinema, the society’s journal; the Quarterly Review of Film and Video; National, Transnational, and International: Chinese Cinema and Asian Cinema in the Context of Globalization, the proceedings of Centennial; and the anthology, Hong Kong Film, Hollywood and the New Global Cinema. 

After the College of Santa Fe closed, she taught occasional courses at the Santa Fe Community College and the Santa Fe University of Art and Design through 2015. After she retired from her academic career, she focused on volunteer work in Albuquerque where she lived. She became a Trail Watch Volunteer for the Open Space Division in 2010, and a volunteer for Visit Albuquerque in 2018.

Joelle was laid to rest at La Puerta Natural Burial Grounds in Belen, New Mexico.