Ilse Fernandez

Ilse Fernandez (Director/Producer) is a Colombian-born U.S. immigrant, documentary filmmaker and docuseries showrunner with over 20 years of experience. She has produced and directed over 200 hours of nonfiction and long-form documentaries for ABC, NBC, Vice, MTV, Netflix, Discovery, A&E, National Geographic and The History Channel. Ilse began tackling pressing social issues via documentary as a director and story producer on five seasons of A&E’s “Intervention” series, including the 2009 Emmy Award-winning season. Her “Rachel” episode, was nominated for both an Emmy and Producers Guild Award. As a showrunner on Viceland’s cutting-edge eight-part documentary series “Cyberwar,” she explored geopolitical-digital conflicts, from NSA whistleblowers to Anonymous hackers. On Spotify’s “Music Happens Here” documentary series, she served as both director and showrunner finding innovative stylistic ways to bring different music genres to life from Pink Floyd to A$AP Mob. The series won three Clio awards. In 2018, she founded Viva Vida Productions, dedicated exclusively to creating documentary films and non-fiction content. She is a 2021 Logan Non-Fiction Fellow and recipient of the 2021 IDA Logan Elevate Grant, 2019 SFFilm/Catapult Documentary Fellow, and received both the 2019 LPB Current Issues Fund and 2020 LPB Public Media Content Fund grants. Exodus Stories is her first feature documentary.

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ABOUT EXODUS STORIES

Exodus Stories follows the high-stakes journeys of three Central American immigrants who join the historic 2018-19 mass migrant caravans fleeing threats, violence, and seeking refuge in the United States at a time when asylum is under siege. Their indomitable immigrant spirit fuels their hope for a better life, but will it be enough?