Milena Mikael-Debass
Milena Mikael-Debass is an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker passionate about telling underreported stories with nuance and journalistic rigor. For over a decade, she has filmed in settings like underground balls in Lagos and favelas in Rio de Janeiro to cover stories about culture and human rights across the Global South. Milena directed a variety of short and longform projects at VICE News including an episode of the Peabody award-winning Transnational series and Black Lives Matter: A Global Reckoning, a docuseries she co-created about global racial justice movements. Her reporting has taken her around the world, including to Uganda, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Israel, Brazil, Germany, the UK, and Canada. Throughout her time at Al Jazeera English, Huffington Post and VICE News, her work was recognized by the News & Documentary Emmys, GLAAD, Webby Awards, Scripps Howard Awards and National Association of Black Journalists. She is the co-founder and former programming director of SmartPhilm, a film festival for shorts exclusively shot with smartphones and mobile devices. She’s also a proud member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia and the Video Consortium. Milena graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in International Relations and French. She earned a Master’s in Global Communication with a focus on conflict studies from George Washington University and Sciences Po Paris.
