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Maggie Stogner Professor SOC | FMA | Film and Media Arts

Additional Positions at AU
Executive Director, Center for Environmental Filmmaking
Fellow, Center for Media and Social Impact
Professor, Film and Media Arts
Degrees
MA Communication/Documentary Film, Stanford University; BA French Literature/Film, San Francisco State University

Favorite Spot on Campus
Anywhere outdoors
Bio
Maggie Burnette Stogner is the Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Filmmaking (www.environmentalfilm.org) and a professor of Film and Media Arts. She brings over 30 years of filmmaking experience to the Center and to the classroom. During her nine years at National Geographic, she produced, directed and wrote numerous documentaries, and was senior producer of the award-winning weekly programs Explorer and Ultimate Explorer. Her recent films include the award-winning "Upstream, Downriver" (2022) www.upstreamdownriver.org, "Unbreathable - The Fight For Healthy Air" (2020) www.unbreathable.org, and "In the Executioner's Shadow" (2018), which are distributed by New Day Films, www.newday.com. She also directed, produced, and wrote the broadcast documentary "Gold Mountain" (2016) about pioneering Chinese in the West. She is founder of Blue Bear Films (maggiebluebear.media) and has an impressive record of creating documentaries as well as immersive media for world-touring cultural exhibitions for National Geographic, the Smithsonian, LucasFilms, and others. Her award-winning work includes two King Tut exhibitions; The Greeks; Real Pirates; Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures; Indiana Jones and Adventure of Archaeology; and Roads of Arabia.

She is committed to creating opportunities for experiential learning through high-impact creative production labs that embrace diversity and inclusion. Her work embodies the belief that compelling storytelling and multi-format media have the power to inspire and to be a catalyst for meaningful change. Collaborating with the next generation of media makers is a critical part of this endeavor.

Her scholarship explores engagement and impact design in film, immersive, and emerging media with a focus on exploring humanistic storytelling through 21st century media technologies. She has published articles in academic journals such as "Curator" and "The International Journal of New Media, Technology and the Arts”.

Teaching

Spring 2025

  • COMM-438 Production Practicum: Natl Park Service Video Proj

Fall 2025

  • COMM-483 Writing the Documentary Film

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Selected Publications

Documentary Magazine article