Nina Seavey
Associate Research Professor of History and Media and Public Affairs

Phone – (202) 994-6787
E-mail – seavey@gwu.edu
Office – MPA 519

Expertise

Documentary Filmmaking and Critical Analysis, Trends in the production and exhibition of non-fiction films

Education

B.A. Washington University in St. Louis, 1978, History and French Literature
M.A. George Washington University, 1991, American History

Courses Taught

SMPA 230, Principles and Methods of Documentary Filmmaking
SMPA 231, Documentary Film Production
SMPA 801, Documentary Film: Fact, Fiction or Propaganda

Background

Nina Gilden Seavey is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and a 25-year veteran of the documentary world. Her work can be seen on television, in theaters, and in museum exhibitions across the globe. She is the director of The Documentary Center at The George Washington University, Washington, DC, which she founded in 1991. She concurrently serves as Co-Director of the Center for Innovative Media at GWU.

In 2003 Seavey became the Founding Director of the SILVERDOCS: AFI-Discovery Documentary Festival, now the largest documentary festival in the U.S. She has continued with the festival as Executive Producer, Programmer, and senior member of the management team from 2004 to the present.

Seavey’s latest film is 4TH AND GOAL, the epic story of six young men in their quest to make it to the NFL. The film, shot over six years, in traditional cinema verite style is the first film ever to document the journey that millions of boys each year hope will lead to a career in professional football.

Beginning in 2005, Seavey produced and co-directed THE MATADOR, which was released theatrically by City Lights Pictures in 2008 and was subsequently broadcast on The Sundance Channel in 2010. The film follows famed matador, David Fandila, in his quest to become the top ranked bullfighter in the world. The New York Times said of THE MATADOR that it “unspools with more drama than most blockbusters.” The film is represented in foreign distribution by Visit Films International, Inc and was released on DVD and Blu Ray by Warner Brothers Entertainment.

Seavey’s imaginative and eclectic style in Seavey’s A SHORT HISTORY OF SWEET POTATO PIE AND HOW IT BECAME A FLYING SAUCER, a 17-minute documentary comedy and was released on the film festival circuit in the spring of 2006. It was named one of the top five short documentary films of 2006 by the International Documentary Association.

On a more serious note, Seavey produced and directed THE OPEN ROAD: AMERICA LOOKS AT AGING, which aired on public television beginning in July 2005. The film was screened in town meetings in 22 states, before the Senate Select Committee on Aging, and during the White House Conference on Aging.

In 2004, Seavey received an Emmy nomination for Best Director for THE BALLAD OF BERING STRAIT. The film follows the journey of seven Russian teenagers who came to America to become country music stars. BALLAD won the Audience Award at the Washington International Film Festival and was selected for the International Documentary Association’s qualifying run for the Academy Awards. BALLAD was released theatrically by Emerging Pictures, appeared in broadcast on VH1/CMT, and was released on DVD by Koch Lorber, Inc.

Seavey's film, A PARALYZING FEAR: THE STORY OF POLIO IN AMERICA was nationally broadcast on PBS in October 1998 and garnered three Emmy nominations and won one Emmy Award. The film also received the Erik Barnouw Prize for the Best Historical Film of the Year. The film was released theatrically at the Film Forum in New York City and toured sixty cities nationwide. The broadcast of A PARALYZING FEAR was accompanied by the publication of a companion book for which Seavey was the first author.

Seavey is known for the range and diversity both of styles and content found in her work. She has directed large historical recreations, live multi-camera shoots for music and sports, and is accomplished in the fusion of interview material with extent archival images and live action motion picture. Perhaps her work is most noteworthy for the access to people and places that are unique to her films. Seavey successfully negotiated the right to shoot the Discovery Channel special, THE BATTLE OF THE ALAMO, inside the walls of the Alamo. Seavey’s crew was the first, and still is, the only film crew ever allowed to shoot inside of the shrine in its nearly 150-year history.

As Director of the Documentary Center over the past 20 years, Seavey has mentored and graduated over 400 aspiring non-fiction filmmakers who have come from around the U.S. to study in her unique, intensive six-month program. In 2008, Seavey launched in the International Emerging Filmmakers Fellowship. Sponsored by the U.S Department of State and the Panasonic Corporation of America, the program brings filmmakers from around the world to GWU for six weeks of cultural exchange and professional development. Between 2008 and 2010 the program has trained filmmakers from Uzbekistan, Jordan, Malaysia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Somalia, India, Lebanon, Burkina Faso, Nicaragua, Kashmir, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Brazil, Armenia, Uganda, Pakistan, South Africa, Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, Egypt, Rwanda, Nepal, Zimbabwe, Ghana, and Cambodia.

Seavey also regularly serves as panelist and advisor to many projects including efforts on behalf of the Duke Ellington School for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Anthony Radziwill Documentary Fund of the IFP, and the Southern Humanities Media Fund, Seavey was the 2006 Woman of Vision for Women in Film and Television in Washington, DC.

Prior to becoming a filmmaker, Seavey had a career in politics from 1972 until 1980. She served on the Missouri campaign staff for the presidential campaigns of George McGovern and Morris Udall and for the senatorial campaign for Thomas Eagleton (D-MO). Later, she served as foreign and military policy advisor to Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder (D-CO) and later became a political appointee in the Office of the Secretary of Defense during the Carter Administration.

Seavey lives in Takoma Park, MD, with her husband, Ormond, and their three children, Aaron, Eleanor, and Caleb, along with the family dog, Frank.