Residence Los Angeles, CA Role Film director Name Heather Connell | Occupation Film director Education Salem State University | |
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Notable work Small Voices: The Stories of Cambodia's Children Movies Forget Us Not, Small Voices: The Stories of Cambodia's Children | ||
Alma mater Salem State University | ||
FirstGlance Film Fest Los Angeles Filmmaker Interview- Forget Us Not
Heather E. Connell is an American film director. She is best known for directing the award-winning feature documentaries Small Voices: The Stories of Cambodia's Children (2008) and Forget Us Not (2013).
Contents
- FirstGlance Film Fest Los Angeles Filmmaker Interview Forget Us Not
- Early life and education
- Directing career
- Other work
- References
Early life and education
Heather Connell was born and raised in Massachusetts. She attended Salem State University where she studied screenwriting and theatre arts.
Directing career
In 2001, Connell relocated to Los Angeles where she founded Displaced Yankee Productions, an independent film company dedicated to using film as a platform for raising social awareness and activism through entertainment.
Shortly after moving to Los Angeles, Connell made the short film Choosing Your Course (2002). A couple of years later she directed another short titled Black/White (2004).
In 2008, Heather Connell wrote, directed and produced her first feature documentary Small Voices: The Stories of Cambodia's Children. Narrated by Connell's close friend, actress Megan Follows (well-known star of the Anne of Green Gables television series), Small Voices documents the struggles of several street children in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, many of whom live and work at the local garbage dump, on their journey to get an education. The documentary won several awards including the 2009 Gold Medal Award at the New York International Film and Video Awards and 2nd place Best Documentary at the Rhode Island International Film Festival in 2008.
In 2011, Connell set out to make her second documentary feature Forget Us Not, which follows the stories of some of the five-million non-Jewish Holocaust survivors including renowned artist Ceija Stojka and is narrated by Golden Globe winning actor Ron Perlman. The film was released on the festival circuit in August 2013 and has won eight awards to date including Best of Festival at Vancouver's Columbia Gorge International Film Festival, Feature Documentary and Editing Awards Of Merit from Accolade Film Competition, Helping Hand International Humanitarian Award from the Rhode Island International Film Festival, Mark Of Distinction Film at the New York Independent Film Festival and Best Narration and World Peace Impact Award from the Artisan World Peace Hamptons Film Festival and Feature Documentary Audience Award at the First Glance International Film Festival Los Angeles.
Other work
Along with being the Executive Producer and director of Displaced Yankee Productions, Heather Connell is currently Board Chair of the Lineage Dance Company, a contemporary dance company dedicated to raising support and awareness for nonprofit organizations and to making the arts accessible to audiences of all demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Shortly after filming Small Voices: The Stories of Cambodia's Children, Connell founded the Safe Haven Medical Outreach Program. Safe Haven is a non-profit educational and therapeutic outreach program for disabled children in Siem Riep, Cambodia. Safe Haven's mission is to provide a safe environment for children with disabilities, allowing them the opportunity to have access to the educational and therapeutic resources that they need in order to reach their full potential and their highest level of personal independence.
In 2013, Heather Connell was one of GO Magazine's "100 Women We Love".