About Stephanie.
Stephanie Tangkilisan is an award winning journalist and documentary filmmaker. Born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, she took on her first newsroom internship at the age of 18 with The Jakarta Globe. Her reporting on the Jakarta bombings was published on the front page of the newspaper.
She went on to study Political Science and Philosophy at the University of Chicago. Where her focus was on genocide and the involvement of the military in instigating violence.
She went on a detour in finance, working at Morgan Stanley and then in business development.
Then she decided to go back to her journalistic roots, founding an explainer news start up, PinterPolitik.com. Where she led a team to create video stories on Indonesian history, politics and policy.
Finding visual storytelling as her true passion, she went to Columbia Journalism School where she obtained a M.S. in Documentary Specialization.
Her documentary directorial debut, Trouble Finds You was awarded the Vital Projects Criminal Justice Grant, ran at over at over 7 film festivals including Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival, Chain NYC Film Festival (won Best Director), BAFTA LA Student Shortlist, among others.
Trouble Finds you was acquired for distribution by First Look Media and The Intercept and was awarded the runner up of the John Jay/Frank Guggenheim Award for Criminal Justice in the single story category.
Daughter of a journalist, she is motivated in scrutinizing the role of power and race in creating conflict and injustice. She is well aware of how incarceration impacted not only the person put behind bars, but also their family for many years to come.
You can contact her at st@stephanietangkilisan.com