Dena Seidel is an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker and interdisciplinary social scientist with internationally recognized expertise in science communication, food systems research and food security policy and experiential STEM learning through storytelling. She integrates science filmmaking, anthropology and STEM Learning pedagogy to advance innovative educational and research models using science video data. As the founding director of Rutgers’ first film production courses and the architect of Rutgers BFA in Filmmaking, Seidel pioneers a model of student engaged, research-based science filmmaking. She has directed, produced and supervised more than a dozen science documentaries co-created with university students filmed in locations around the world including Antarctica, Zambia, Brazil, Spain, Italy, the Azores, Micronesia and the East Pacific Rise. These films have reached global audiences via PBS, Netflix, Amazon, Kanopy, and international film festivals.
As a science communication researcher, Seidel develops original survey tools to measure 1) students’ STEM learning through science storytelling 2) STEM learning for audiences 3) science communication development for participating scientists. A 2025 New Jersey State Senate Resolution recognized Rutgers Immersive Learning through Science Storytelling Lab, based on Seidel’s science-in-action film storytelling model for increasing public trust in science.
Seidel has a masters degree in anthropology with years of experience learning from Pacific indigenous cultures. From 2016-2019, Seidel was the director of the Okeanos Foundation for the Sea dedicated to providing traditional based sustainable sea transportation to vulnerable Pacific island communities. In this role, Seidel served as the foundation’s storyteller directing more than 30 short documentaries featuring Pacific Islanders expressing their need for sea transportation. Seidel is the co-director of the feature film Starchasers for which she directed more than 40 film shoots. She is currently the honorary ambassador at large for research and academic partnerships for the Pohnpei state government and a member of the Rutgers Food Systems Science Team for the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Seidel co-leads food systems research on behalf of FSM national and state governments developing participatory survey tools for culturally appropriate data gathering with farmers and fishers that includes video as primary data. Seidel has also designed and implemented Pacific cultural and science-based public engagement events, including the“Ocean Peoples” exhibit for the United Nations’ 2017 Oceans Conference and the “Sailing the Past into the Future” for the UNFCCC COP23.
Seidel is a recipient of a New York Festivals award for Best Editing, a New York Emmy Award for Best Editing, a United Nations Association Film Festival award for Best Cinematography, two Chicago Film Festival Intercom Awards for Best Science and Research Programming, the Princeton Environmental Film Festival Best Documentary Award, the Garden State Film Festival Broader Vision Award and the Ekotopfilm Festival’s Grand Prize Science and Technology Film Award. Seidel is a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctica Service Medal in recognition of her contributions to exploration and scientific achievement.
Seidel developed several original Rutgers filmmaking curricula having served as the Director of Digital Storytelling in the Rutgers English Department from 2007-2011 and the Director of the Rutgers Center for Digital Filmmaking and the Rutgers Film Bureau from 2011-2015. Currently, Seidel and 12 of her students are completing Mysteries of 9° North a one hour science-in-action film featuring an interdisciplinary team of scientists studying the origins of biological communities among deep sea volcanoes of the East Pacific Rise. Past science-in-action films directed by Seidel that include student co-creation are Atlantic Crossing: a Robot’s Daring Mission aired more than 400 times on PBS stations, reaching a potential audience of 180 million people and showcased in a Smithsonian Sant Ocean Hall exhibit. Seidel is also the director of the National Science Foundation funded Antarctic Edge: 70° South that was broadcast on Netflix from 2015-2018.
Seidel has established creative and trusting partnerships with scientists and researchers across many disciplines and she provides impactful experiential learning opportunities to students from a variety of majors leading to lasting student success.
Dena with Spike Lee
Seidel has also produced more than a dozen visiting filmmaker events at Rutgers University that included the participation of Spike Lee, Academy Award winner Ross Kauffman, Academy Award nominee Marshall Curry, Sam Pollard, Pamela Yates, Jenny Livingston, Fabien Cousteau, National Geographic producer Peter Schnall, and executive director of NOVA Paula Apsell. Seidel also worked closely with Professor Rich Lutz to secure the Al Giddings underwater cinematography library for Rutgers as Seidel had been Giddings’ co-producer on the two hour Discovery Channel special “Forbidden Depths.”