Jeffrey S.
Chicago, IL, USA
$450 - $1000
Jeff Spitz is a Chicago-based Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, Sundance Film Festival honoree and tenured Professor in the department of Cinema and TV Arts at Columbia College Chicago. He is the co-founder of Groundswell Educational Films, NFP, a non-profit production company that combines documentary and social impact campaigns. Jeff’s documentaries have screened and won awards at international film festivals and aired on broadcast networks such as PBS, ABC, A&E and CBC. A winner of the Illinois Governor's International Arts Exchange Award, Jeff collaborates with participants to create intimate, first-person voiced stories that engage mainstream media and help change public policies. Presented by New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the US EPA, Jeff’s internationally acclaimed film, The Return of Navajo Boy, triggered a federal investigation into uranium poisoning and helped the Navajo tribe win the largest environmental settlement in Native American history. Groundswell projects unfold within larger strategic campaigns involving multiple audiences including schools, universities, mainstream media reporters, bloggers, community-based organizations, public policy makers, faith institutions, large non-profits and broadcasters. (See links below.) Multi-award-winning documentaries and social impact campaigns such as Food Patriots, The Robben Island Singers and The Return of Navajo Boy generate international recognition and real world results for years. An Education Consultant, Jeff provides professional development training in media arts. He guides teachers in hands-on experiences in visual storytelling with iPhones, iPads, digital video cameras and interactive learning management systems so they can develop project-based curricula in new media. In 2016 Jeff created The Doc Talk Show - an ongoing monthly series of live events featuring non-fiction filmmakers bringing their cutting edge work to new audiences in person. See http://www.thedoctalkshow.com
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- Field Producer