Lunch Talk on Environmental Documentary Filmmaking by Thea Mercouffer, Documentary Filmmaker & Director Of “Rock The Boat”

Born and raised in Romania, Thea and her family escaped the communist dictatorship in 1987 and immigrated to the US. In 1995, Thea received an MFA from the University of Washington. For the next few years, she traveled the world to work with great masters of theater, such as Andrei Serban, Tadashi Suzuki, Bart Sherr and Leonid Anissimov. She is the producer of several shows that have traveled internationally.

Since 2002, she has dedicated her time exclusively to film directing, her attention keenly focused on social and environmental issues. Thea directed, co-produced, and co-wrote 6 films about sexual assault in six different languages as an educational tool for various immigrant communities in the US. Her documentary on human trafficking I just keep quiet won the Pegasus Award for Excellence - the highest honor for government-sponsored projects.

Her environmental documentary Rock the Boat - Saving America’s Wildest River about the LA River controversy won multiple festival awards.