Jesse Bertel

Journalist and Documentary Filmmaker

Background

Jesse Bertel is an award winning Media Artist, Filmmaker, Comedian, Journalist, and Musician. He has an A.S. in Video Production from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. He also has a B.A. of Screenwriting in Cinema and Television Arts and an M.A. of Documentary Film in Mass Communication/Journalism, both from California State University, Northridge.

He won his first film award for his comedic reinterpretation of Charlie Chaplin’s filmmaking and acting in the 1998 film, Damsel in Distress. He is the recipient of the Frank Little Award for Self-Sacrifice and Social Change, from the 2016 Covellite International Film Festival, and Best Documentary Feature, from the 2018 Open Everything Film Festival – Privacy and Security, for his groundbreaking documentary film, Left Out: Beyond the Two-Party Horse Race. Additionally, he was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Thesis/Project Award in 2015 for his insightful interviews with Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Amy Goodman and Luis J. Rodriguez.

He is also the Host of The Real/Fake News, an online news satire program, which challenges the boundaries between real news and fake news.

His newest film, Bernie and Me, explores the campaign of Bernie Sanders with a focus on the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia through the eyes of himself as a filmmaker and single parent.

Filmography

1998 Damsel in Distress
2011 Magic Soap
2012 A Wormhole in the Attic
2016 The Real/Fake News
2018 Left Out: Beyond the Two-Party Horse Race
2020 Bernie and Me

Awards

1998 Best Film Award from San Antonio College
2015 Outstanding Graduate Thesis/Project Award from California State University, Northridge
2016 Frank Little Award for Self-Sacrifice and Social Change from Covellite International Film Festival
2018 Best Documentary Feature from Open Everything Film Festival – Privacy and Security
2022 1st Place in Best Multimedia Storytelling for Yavapai College campus in Chino Valley first in nation to teach 3D concrete printing, from the 2022 ANA Better Newspaper Contest.