LOUISE VANCE

Louise Vance’s career spans thirty years of television, independent film and video production. Specializing in content-rich, real world stories, her producing, directing and writing achievements include award-winning national television documentaries, news and interview programs, as well as high-end corporate communications and educational video.

After learning production as a public affairs specialist and program producer at KOA-TV/AM/FM (NBC) in Denver, Louise headed to Atlanta in April 1980 as one of the first thirty journalists hired to launch Cable News Network. There she produced a twenty-minute tour of network operations for CNN's inaugural broadcast. She spent the next three years producing daily, live news/talk programs: Take Two, a two-hour midday show, and Freeman Reports, the network's prime time interview program in New York. She produced profiles of candidates and key races for the network's 1982 midterm election coverage, and was writer/producer of the 20-part CNN series, Iran: In the Name of God in 1985. That same year, Louise produced, directed and wrote the landmark two-hour TBS documentary, Iran: Behind the Veil, which drew national attention as the first look inside Iran since the Islamic Revolution. Her efforts earned Turner Broadcasting's first duPont-Columbia Award, a Gold Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival, a Monitor Award for best network news documentary, and an Ohio State Award, among dozens of festival and industry honors.

Louise went on to earn a George Foster Peabody Award for her work as Series Producer of TBS's landmark five-year series Portrait of America, hosted by Hal Holbrook. She also wrote, produced and directed the "Massachusetts" and "Montana" hours, earning Emmy and ACE Award nominations. Upon leaving Turner Broadcasting in 1987, Louise co-created and wrote the Smithsonian Institution's first interactive documentary game, Tropical Rain Forests: A Disappearing Treasure. She joined forces with The Working Group in Oakland, California as a producer on the national PBS documentary Not in Our Town II: Citizens Respond to Hate, funded by The Democracy Project. In 1997, she was named Senior Producer of the public television series, Livelyhood, a look at the changing nature of work in America with humorist Will Durst. In 1999, Louise produced and directed the KQED/PBS special, Speaking Freely: An Evening with Remarkable Women, a no-host conversation shot on location in a San Francisco coffeehouse.

In Spring 2000, she completed the educational documentary, INSIDE/OUT: Real Stories of Women, Men and Life After Incarceration for U.C. San Francisco's Center for AIDS Prevention Studies. The following year, she produced, directed and wrote three video profiles about Oxygen Media for Apple Computer's online magazine, Media Arts.

In Spring 2002, Louise completed A Passion for Justice: 21st Century Feminism, a 34-minute educational documentary commissioned by the California National Organization for Women. That year, she also produced, directed and wrote a 40-minute history of Levi Strauss and Company as seen through the lens of the company's values. In 2003, Louise completed Action for Justice: Making a Difference for Women and Girls, a primer on activist training. She served as scriptwriter for Oregon Public Broadcasting's 26-part series, Bridging World History, contributing a half-hour script on family and household as aspects of world history.

In 2005, she wrote and directed the 30-minute film, What One Company Can Do, chronicling Levi Strauss & Co.’s global code of conduct.  In 2006, she wrote the 18-minute film, Lost in Transition: From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor for the National Institute of Medicine, recipient of the 2006 Freddie Award, the international medical video awards.

In 2008, Ms. Vance wrote, produced and directed The Mission Asset Fund: Investing in the American Dream, about a community initiative to preserve San Francisco's Mission neighborhood. She also wrote Missing Opportunities for The National Institute of Medicine, a doc on the adolescent healthcare crisis in America, sent to every member of the U.S. Congress. She continued to field produce stories for CNN and Discovery, as well as direct executive interview shoots and success stories for Microsoft, Apple Computer, and other corporate clients.

Louise Vance earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, magna cum laude, from the State University of New York at Albany. She was awarded a teaching degree in Secondary English with a minor in Education. Throughout her career, Louise has served on selection panels for the Chicago Area Emmy Awards and the Southeast Regional Emmy Awards, and twice was a juror for the documentary category of the San Francisco International Film Festival. She has guest lectured in film studies classes at Georgia State University and at Mills College.

Ms. Vance's interests include hiking, photography, mindfulness practice and fiction writing. She mentors young filmmakers, facilitates book and writing groups, and shares her life with her husband, artist and designer Darryl Vance.