Eléonore Hamelin
Léo Hamelin
Documentary Filmmaker
Bio
Léo Hamelin is a journalist and documentary filmmaker based in New York.
Most recently, she was the Head of Documentaries at Brut. America, where she led a small team to create impactful, social documentaries across the United States.
Léo's work is immersive and aims to create empathy through intimate, first-person accounts. She created 30 short docs about addiction, death, porn, immigration and the environment, reaching millions of viewers worldwide.
She previously worked at Blue Chalk Media as a Director/Producer.
She has produced series of online short-documentaries for The New York Times, Bloomberg and freelanced with the BBC, TIME, The Guardian, VOX.com, AFP, Arte TV. Her short-doc "Quiet No More' was published in The New Yorker and got awarded a National Magazine Award.
She recently got awarded a European Journalism Centre grant for Innovation in Development Reporting to report on gender equality in Rwanda, in collaboration with Time, Libération, La Stampa, Marie Claire, El País and more.
As a recipient of the 2018 Adelante Fellowship from the International Women Media Foundation (IWMF) she reported from the US-Mexico border. Her work was published on the BBC and Tampa Bay Times. Her illustrated essay about life at the border was published on BuzzFeed News.
Léo Hamelin is originally French but grew up in Brazil and Thailand, studied in France, Mexico and Hong Kong. She has produced work internationally, including in Central and South America, Central and Western Europe -- and recently traveled throughout the African continent to interview business leaders and Heads of States.
Léo Hamelin also teaches video journalism and multimedia storytelling courses at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where she got a Master's Degree in 2012 and worked as Digital Media Fellow in 2013.
Prior, she earned a B.A. in Politics '09 and a Master's Degree in Journalism '11 from Sciences-Po Paris.
She's a member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective.
She also creates editorial illustration for The Delacorte Review and The Professional Freelancer -- you can find those on her insta Doodle Reporter.
Skills & Expertise
International Work
Léo has traveled to over 30 countries. She grew up in Brazil and Thailand, studied in Mexico and Hong Kong. She is fluent in French, English, Spanish and has basics in three other languages.
She received Hostile Environment Training.
Video Storytelling skills
Léo is proficient in Producing, Filming and Editing -- she's worked as a one-woman-band as well as a Director and/or Producer as part of much bigger teams. She owns her own gear.
Educating
Léo has been in a teaching role at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism since 2012. She currently leads her own Video Journalism workshop as part of the School's Adjunct Faculty. She also mentors newsrooms in partnership with the International Center for Journalism (ICFJ).
Print & Doodles
A firm believer that there should be different medium for each story Léo also writes and draws. Her work as a writer has been published in Marie Claire, Le Monde, Libération, El Pais, La Stampa -- in most cases, along with her drawings. She's done a graphic essay about the US-Mexico border for Buzzfeed News. She doodles a lot.
Check her doodle portfolio here.