NANCY SIESEL

Director, Cinematographer

Nancy Siesel is a Pulitzer prize winning photojournalist, whose travels in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa have led to the ongoing project "In Search of the Baobab Tree", an exploration of landscapes, using vintage plastic cameras. As a former staff photographer for The New York Times.

Her deep interest in the transformative power of documentary photography was sparked, at 17, documenting the life of a former classmate who was making her living as a topless dancer in Times Square, and later succumbed to AIDS by her 25 birthday. The project, entitled "Solitary Dancer", was a personally painful and cathartic undertaking that spanned seven years.

Recent documentary projects have explored cultures and rituals among Brooklyn’s myriad ethnic, and religious communities. She is currently directing a short documentary," Escape Artists: The Tale of Mike and Freddie", about two cows that escape slaughter. It will raise the question-- how does an animal go from having a number to a name, and claiming his life.