Helen De Michiel

Helen De Michiel  

PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/WRITER

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT + PARTICIPATORY MEDIA SPECIALIST
 

As a Bay Area-based director, writer and producer, my creative media making work  moves across independent film and digital platforms. Beginning in the 1980s, I produced pioneering series The Independents and Alive TV for public television, created several innovative community media projects with youth, and began writing regularly about issues in the public media and arts field.  My films are included in museum collections across the country.

I am deeply involved in co-creative and participatory media practices, including combinatory storytelling which I call open space new media. I co-authored Open Space New Media Documentary: A Toolkit for Theory and Practice (Routledge 2018) with film historian Patricia Zimmermann. I write about my own creative experiences, knowledge, and insight into these processes and possibilities. My episodic documentary, Lunch Love Community (2010-15) circulated as an open space project across live and online communities; and, along with Berkeley Vs. Big Soda (2016), continues to make a real impact for global food justice.

From Shapeshifting Documentaries: A Toolkit for Filmmakers
My 2018 Workshop at Berkeley Film Foundation

I currently teach in the Film Program at California College of the Arts in San Francisco.  My new documentary project, Between the Sun and the Sidewalk, will be released in 2020.

I offer consulting and coaching for filmmakers on their creative process and distribution goals. My work as an artist, advocate, and educator focuses on bringing together groups and individuals to spark dialogue and create impact across media and communities.


1998-Current  Founded and directs Thirty Leaves Production

1996-2010  Served as the Executive Director and then Co-Director of The National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (now The Alliance)

2002-2007  Served on the Peabody Awards Board of Directors