Faculty

Deanna Kamiel

Assistant Professor, Director of Graduate Certificate in Documentary Studies

University of Toronto, York University

Deanna Kamiel is a Canadian-born director and producer with extensive experience as a teacher of documentary and film.  She has been a member of Media Studies’ part-time faculty since 1992.  She is also a faculty member in the Film Program at Purchase College, SUNY, where she teaches four documentary production courses per year and advises, interviews, and selects candidates for the program.Kamiel began her career in documentary working for the CBC in Toronto, part of a new generation of filmmakers investigating race, sex, and class. She moved on to the local PBS affiliate in Minneapolis, MN, and has continued her efforts at Channel Thirteen/WNET as an independent producer for Emmy-winning programs like Egg and City Arts. She is currently developing a documentary titled Word on the Street, which focuses on the historical and cultural roles of open-air kiosks and newsstands. Her work—including Nuclear Outpost, Boys with Bats, and Maggie and the Men of Minnesota—has won awards from the Tokyo Video Festival (first prize), Chicago Film Festival, International Public Television Festival, National Film Board of Canada, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Northwest Broadcast News Association. She has been a guest at the Flaherty Film Seminar and received a Guggenheim Fellowship and numerous grants for her work.  Most recently she produced an indie documentary about the remarkable 2004 presidential run of Howard Dean.