Vanessa Smith believes in the power of film for advocacy, change, and beauty.

Since Smith graduated from Stanford University (BA in Urban Design), she has lived and worked in New York, India, Nepal, London, and North Carolina. She has produced, directed, and worked on programs for Columbia Pictures, PBS, BBC, Discovery, Discovery Health and Johns Hopkins University. Her work has focused on art, creativity, health, and cultural politics. Smith’s projects have been inspired by people who are able to make difficult decisions with integrity.

Smith is most proud of a BBC Correspondent documentary she produced which helped change Nepalese law. This film, about a rape victim unfairly imprisoned for having an abortion, helped an international effort to free the fourteen year old subject of the film from prison. The film was instrumental in helping to change Nepalese law, and won the Amnesty International Media Award for television news.