About Me

Member Since 2019 | Views: 449

Director of photography Laela Kilbourn has accomplished narrative and documentary works that present intimate portraits of character and compelling stories of transformation; her over thirty years in filmmaking inform her use of verité and studio techniques to build cinematic experiences of discovery and connection. An Emmy Award winner for Outstanding Cinematography for her work on GIRLS STATE, she also won a Best Feature Cinematography Award for SWIM TEAM, and has filmed eight Sundance Film Festival documentary feature premieres, such as the DuPont-Columbia Journalism Award winner THIS IS HOME: A REFUGEE STORY; Peabody Award winning HOW TO DANCE IN OHIO; and Emmy nominated WORD WARS. Recent projects at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival are SABBATH QUEEN and FOLLOWING HARRY, and she also shot SYNC OR SWIM, winner of the Billie Award for Journalism from the Women’s Sports Foundation, and filmed History’s eleven part docuseries SANDHOGS. Her noted narrative work includes the black comedy CRABS IN A BARREL, featured on HBOmax; THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF QUEENS, awarded Best Narrative Short Film at Katra Latinx Festival; PARK SLOPE MOMS, winner of the NYWIFT/iWomanTV Best Dark Comedy and Audience awards; and the feature DEATH OF A FOOL. She has worked on projects for FX, NBC, PBS, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Epix, Amazon Studios, AMC, A&E, TBS, Nick Jr., NickMom, ESPN, Disney, History, MTV, VH1, and WeTV. A member of the International Cinematographers Guild IATSE Local 600, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, New York Women in Film & Television, and the International Collective of Female+ Cinematographers, she has served as a juror for the Brooklyn International Film Festival, as a panelist on cinematography at the Canon Creative Studio and DOC NYC PRO, and as a guest speaker at The New School. She has a degree in social anthropology from Harvard University.

I have been in the industry since 1993.