Annette Danto

Annette Danto is a filmmaker, author and educator with extensive production experience. Her award-winning films have exhibited nationally and internationally, and have screened at film festivals throughout the world.

Annette Danto is the Senior Editor/Co-Author of the textbook Think/Point/Shoot: Media Ethics, Technology and Global Change (Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2017). https://www.routledge.com/Think-Point-Shoot-Media-Ethics-Technology-and-Global-Change/Danto-Hashmi-Isabel/p/book/9781138847965 Think/Point/Shoot features practicing filmmakers, journalists, and media creators who provide insight into dealing with real-world ethical dilemmas. Co-edited by Annette Danto, Mobina Hashmi and Lonnie Isabel, the volume includes essays by pioneering filmmakers, journalists, scholars including: Jon Alpert, Christine Choy, Tami Gold, Yoruba Richen, Scott Sinkler, K. Hariharan, Terilyn Shropshire and John Gurrin. The book is divided into preproduction, production, post production and distribution - and is specifically written for all who make movies, documentaries, narratives and new media.

Inspired by the documentary, Reflections On Media Ethics (Danto, 2011) Think/Point/Shoot grew out of a conference on global media ethics in New York in 2013 and the discussions that followed from it. On March 13–14, 2013 Annette Danto in collaboration with media scholar, Mobina Hashmi, and journalist Lonnie Isabel sponsored a conference, “Global Media Ethics” held at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. The Global Media Ethics conference was supported by the Loreen Arbus Foundation, Brooklyn College, CUNY Journalism School, New York Women In Film & Television and the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. The conference proceedings are included as part of the Think/Point/Shoot website.

Annette Danto has directed fiction and documentary films. Early fiction films were distributed through Filmmakers Library. Her short 1989 film Die Waisenkinder (Orphans), an adaptation of a play by Rainer Maria Rilke, won critical acclaim at national and international film festivals for directing, cinematography, and art direction. Awards included: Cinecom International, Merchant Ivory Award, Cine Golden Eagle, Premi Extraordinaire, First Run Awards for Directing, Certificates of Merit from Oberhausen, Baltimore Art Museum, New York Film Festival and the Chicago International Children's Film Festival.

Her work for nonprofit organizations, includes: UNIFEM, Gandhigram Rural Institute, Brooklyn Community Partnership, Pathfinder International and Ted Turner Foundation. Film titles include: Shanti's Story (2004), Shea Nut Gatherer's of Burkina Faso (2001), Portraits of Two Women (2001), Project Peace (1999). Recent documentaries include: Reverse Gaze (currently in production), NEP 2: A Longitudinal Follow Up (currently in production), Reflections on Media Ethics (2011), Gandhi’s Wheel (2010) and The Never Ending Path (2005), distributed by Forward In Time https://www.forwardintime.com/. Distribution has focused on the educational marketplace in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and South Africa and well received by academic programs in Women's Studies, Anthropology, Religious Studies, South Asian Studies, Sociology, Philosophy and other related disciplines.

Annette Danto is a Professor and former Chair of the Film Department at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Film Department. She has been at Brooklyn College since 1997 and teaches beginning and advanced courses in narrative and documentary production, screenwriting and sound recording.

She is the founding director of the Brooklyn College India: Documentary Production Program (2004–present) http://studyabroad.brooklyn.cuny.edu/india/Welcome.html

Annette Danto is a three-time awarded Fulbright Scholar in Filmmaking, and a twice awarded Tow Faculty Fellow. She is currently a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow 2016 - 2018 working on the documentary NEP 2: A 16 Year Longitudinal Follow Up (in production).

In addition to international screenings of her films, Annette Danto has given lectures and special presentations at conferences, universities and film festivals in the United Kingdom, Istanbul, India and the United States. Recent guest lectures include: M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women in Chennai (2017), British Film Institute (2015), Bangor University, Wales (2015), Daniel Pearl Film Festival (2015).

Danto holds a BA magna cum laude from McGill University (1980), an MS from Columbia University (1982), and an M.F.A. with distinction from New York University's Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film, Television and New Media (1989).

Annette Danto is the former president of Friends of Fulbright to India, an alumni association of former Fulbright Scholars to India. She is also the co-founder of AV Communications Trust, a non-profit media organization based in South India. The Trust offers media workshops in underserved regions of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.