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Natalie Shmuel

Forest Hills, New York, United States
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NatalieShmuel
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Bio

Natalie Shmuel is a NYC-based Unit Stills Photographer for film & TV. She shoots behind the scenes and promo stills for features, shorts and documentary sets, including projects produced by PBS and BET.

When she isn’t capturing the magic on set, Natalie continues to work with photographs and moving images as an Archival Producer for scripted films and documentaries, including network productions by MSNBC, EPIX and PBS. Natalie recently completed work with A+E on a 6-hour docu-series for the HISTORY channel, executive produced and hosted by former President Bill Clinton, that explores how American presidents throughout our history - during particular moments of crisis - helped to promote, and sometimes delay, the creation of a more perfect union. She is now currently working with a number of documentaries as an Archival Producer, including Gifted + Black - a feature for Amazon Studios with executive producers Timbaland, Swizz Beatz and Lena Waithe, chronicling the creation of the star-studded social media Black music phenomenon, Verzuz. As we bear witness to how the country changes, Verzuz is a gateway to look back at Black music's role of responding to and holding down the community for the last 450 years in the face of America's deep-rooted racial fault-lines.

Natalie’s work in documentary films tends to specialize in narratives that address social justice issues and underrepresented history, having worked over the years on projects with influential filmmakers including Stanley Nelson, Laurens Grant and Thomas Allen Harris. Natalie collaborated with Academy member Thomas Allen Harris on multiple projects, including his Emmy award-winning feature documentary Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People - a Sundance 2014 premiere film that explores how African American communities have used the camera as a tool for social change from the invention of photography to the present. Natalie was an Archival & Associate Producer for a Third World Newsreel feature directed by Konrad Aderer titled Resistance at Tule Lake, exposing the hidden historical archives and never-before-seen imagery of the Japanese-American experience during WWII mass incarceration in the US.

Natalie immerses in film theory and cinema history, and has a keen eye for film aesthetics in scripted narratives. She recently produced her first feature film Sleepyhead - starring Lillo Brancato as the lead, along with Paul Malignaggi and Slug. She is currently finishing up a short film that will premiere and screen in festivals throughout 2024.

As an avid photographer, Natalie organized grassroots activism coalitions and direct actions for several policy reforms with a camera in hand. Natalie’s photo series documenting New York's cannabis reform movement and community actions have been featured in various publications, including VICE News, Buzzfeed and NY City Lens.

Natalie holds an M.A. in Cinema Studies from NYU Tisch, and a B.A. cum laude in Film Studies and Psychology from Queens College.