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.
Affiliations:
Producers Guild of America (PGA)
Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE)
Archival Producers Alliance (APA)
Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA)
Exhibitions:
#RootedinQueens16, Queenscapes at QNS Collective, Queens NY, October - December 2016 [Photo]
Digital Diaspora Family Reunion: Turning Strangers into Family, Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University, New Haven CT, September - December 2016
Women's Appreciation "Mad Tea Party", Indigo Artist Collective at The Kymberle Project, Brooklyn NY, March 2015 [Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3]
Select Published Photographs:
Freedom Leaf
HoneySuckle Magazine
Al Jazeera
Select Stills Photographer credits:
Beverages with Bevin (Tubi TV series), 2023
Sleepyhead (feature), 2021
Family Pictures USA (PBS TV series), 2018
Digital Diaspora Family Reunion Roadshow (digital series), 2012 - 2017
The Truth Series: The New Civil Rights Movement (BET TV documentary), 2016
Engrams (feature), 2014-2016
Aimy in a Cage (feature), 2014
Inertia (short), 2014
Abeyance (short), 2014
Select Film/TV credits:
Welcome to Forest Hills (Documentary, 90 mins), Archival Producer, 2023-present
White with Fear (Documentary, 87 mins), Archival Producer, 2022-2023
Gifted + Black (Amazon Studios Documentary, 87 mins), Archival Producer, 2021-2022
Sleepyhead (James Hilger, feature narrative), Producer, 2021-2022
Harley [w.t.] (Documentary, 83 mins), Archival Producer Consultant, 2021-present
The American Presidency with Bill Clinton (A+E/History Channel TV documentary series, 6-hours), Archival AP Producer, 2021
Storming Caesars Palace (PBS Documentary, 83 mins), Archival Producer, 2020
By Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of Godfather of Harlem (EPIX TV documentary series, 4-hours), Archival Producer, 2020
Obama (MSNBC TV documentary series, 5-hours), Associate Producer [Archival], 2019
Family Pictures USA (PBS TV documentary series, 3-hours), Archival & Associate Producer, 2017-2019
Resistance at Tule Lake (Documentary, 78 mins), Associate Producer, 2015-2017
Engrams (Armando Luis Alvarez, feature narrative), Associate Producer/Additional Photography/Script Supervisor, 2014-2016
Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (Documentary, 87 mins), Post-Production Coordinator & Archival Research, 2012-2016
Wilhemina's War (Documentary, 62 mins), Research Associate, 2015
Aimy in a Cage (Hooroo Jackson, feature narrative), Script Supervisor, 2014
Inertia (Brian Lederman, short narrative), Script Supervisor, 2014
Abeyance (Armando Luis Alvarez, short narrative), Script Supervisor, 2014