Lesley Steele

Categories: Film, Media, Visual Arts, Community Arts, Photography

Lesley Steele is a Director, Editor, Designer & Producer of video art & documentary film. Originally a New York City Bronx native she obtained a BFA in Design Technology from Parsons The New School for Design and Masters in Directing from The School of Visual Arts. In 2020 she was chosen to participate in Sundance's Art of Editing Fellowship & subsequently appeared on DOC NYC's “40 under 40” filmmakers list.

Steele’s spark in experimental 16mm cinematography & analog editing is a driving force in her work, both non-fiction & fiction. Steele’s latest doc, By Way of Canarsie, was produced in 2019 with fellow Co-Director Emily Packer in a CoLAB with UnionDocs. The film is currently featured & available to watch on PBS POV Season 6, the Criterion Channel and distributed by Dedza Films and Kino Lorber. It premiered at BlackStar Film Festival, Better Cities, DocNYC’s 2020 Virtual Film Festival and was invited to screen in BAM’s 2020 Fall Virtual Series “Programmer’s Notebook: New York Lives" and The 2023 Carribean Film Series at BAM led by Third Horizon. It is also a 2023 official selection in UrbanWorld Film Festival

Lesley is currently producing her first investigative feature doc about the state of mental health and its intersection with race and the carceral system in the United States. Steele is currently a member of Meerkat Media Co-operative a democratically run production company that produces artful and impactful films with an emphasis on ethical narrative storytelling, non-fiction and visual craft. Her previous clients include MTV, Nickelodeon, Spotify, TED, Buzzfeed, HBO, SnapChat, NowThis and others. You can also find Lesley via Brown Girls Doc Mafia, The Alliance of Doc Editors & Array Crew founded by Ava DuVernay.