Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, writer, and educator, exploring the power of storytelling to advance public understanding of and engagement with complex subjects and ideas.
“In the context of the really big scheme of things with regards the social, and now bordering on dystopian devaluation of what is currently taking place in the not so United States of America, many could well argue that this book couldn’t be more timely if it tried…. vivid, succinct and void of banal bullshit.” — David Marx : Book Reviews
“An extremely useful book for those who want to know more about how to make a documentary film… It stresses the use of narrative techniques in documentary production…and includes interviews with a number of important filmmakers.” - Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, 3rd edition
“…really two books in one: a detailed how-to guide for filmmakers on the process of researching, acquiring, and clearing rights to archival materials; and a deeper exploration of the implications, ethical and creative, of using these materials to tell new stories.” - Grace Lile, American Archivist
Sheila Curran Bernard is the Glen Trotiner Professor of Visual Storytelling at the University at Albany, SUNY, and director of its graduate program in public history. She is credited on nearly 50 hours of prime-time broadcast, theatrical, and giant screen programming, and has served on festival juries and/or offered master classes in nonfiction storytelling in the United States and Europe. Her most recent book, Bring Judgment Day, written with support of an NEH Public Scholars grant, was a finalist for the 2025 Jazz Journalists Association Award.
