Deia Schlosberg is an American documentary filmmaker and producer. She is the recipient of one Emmy and two Student Emmys. Her October 2016 arrest while filming an anti-fossil fuel protest in

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

led to a viral #freedeia social media campaign and an open letter to President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

co-signed by 30 celebrities. The arrest and subsequent charges put Deia at risk of 45 years in prison and contributed to a worrying pattern of attacks on journalistic freedom.

Early life

Deia Schlosberg graduated from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

and

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

Degrees in 2003, majoring in Earth and Planetary Sciences and Visual Communications. She attended

Montana State University Montana State University (MSU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's largest university. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's degrees in 6 ...

, where she earned a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

in Science & Natural History Filmmaking.

Career

Schlosberg directed ''Backyard'', a documentary film about

hydraulic fracturing Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of bedrock formations by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "frack ...

. She produced the 2016 documentary ''

How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can't Change ''How to Let Go of the World (And Love All the Things Climate Can't Change)'' is a 2016 environmental documentary by Josh Fox that premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival The 2016 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 21 to Janua ...

''. Schlosberg won the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year award in 2009, after spending two years trekking 7,800 miles along the spine of the

Andes Mountains The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the List of mountain ranges#Mountain ranges by length, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range i ...

, together with Gregg Treinish. Five years later, in 2014, she won the Best Documentary Award and the Bricker Humanitarian Award from the Student Emmy Awards in 2014. On October 11, 2016, Schlosberg was arrested while filming protesters of the TransCanada

Keystone Pipeline The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and as of 31 March 2020 the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Albert ...

Walhalla, North Dakota Walhalla is a city in Pembina County, North Dakota, Pembina County, North Dakota, United States. It sits on the banks of the Pembina River (North Dakota), Pembina River, five miles (8 km) from the border with Manitoba (Canada) and approximately ...

. She was charged with conspiracy to theft of property, conspiracy to theft of services and conspiracy to tampering with or damaging a public service. Within two days, film director Josh Fox wrote an open letter to US President

calling for her release; the letter was co-signed by thirty celebrities, including

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

, Mark Ruffalo, Daryl Hannah, Frances Fisher, and

Alex Ebert Alexander Michael Tahquitz Ebert (born May 12, 1978) is an American singer-songwriter and composer. He is best known for being the lead singer and songwriter for the American bands Ima Robot and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. On January 1 ...

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is an American folk rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 2005. The group is led by singer Alex Ebert. The band's name is based on a story Ebert wrote in his youth, about a messianic figure named E ...

. Josh Fox commented, “They have in my view violated the First Amendment. It’s fucking scary, it knocks the wind of your sails, it throws you for a loop. They threw the book at Deia for being a journalist.”Filmmaker Arrested At Pipeline Protest Facing 45 Years In Felony Charges
/ref> Subsequently, she co-produced Lindsey Grayzel's 2018 film,
The Reluctant Radical
', about one of the protesters involved with the protest action. Deia also co-produced the documentary
Awake, A Dream from Standing Rock
' in 2017. In 2019, Schlosberg premiered the documentary
The Story of Plastic
', her feature directorial debut created in partnership with the Story of Stuff organization. The film, which addressed misleading corporate narratives surrounding the

plastic pollution Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are catego ...

crisis as well as the damage done at every stage along the life cycle of the fossil fuel product, was picked up by The

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

to anchor their programming for the 50th anniversary of

Earth Day Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EarthDay.org (formerly Earth Day Network) including 1 b ...

on April 22, 2020. The film was awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Documentary in 2021.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schlosberg, Deia Living people Montana State University alumni American documentary film directors American documentary film producers Year of birth missing (living people) Washington University in St. Louis alumni American women documentary filmmakers

Early life

Career

See also

References

External links