BETH NELSEN IS A DOCUMENTARY STORYTELLER AND FREELANCE VIDEO MAKER.

 

Beth Nelsen is an activist and filmmaker based in Napa, California, at present and is head of Fluffle Productions which was born in 2019. A "fluffle" is a group of rabbits and while Beth was in grad school, her teacher likened her style of filmmaking to "pulling rabbits out of hats." While there may be some half truths to that description, Beth is very good at listening, thinking critically and executing her vision.

After flying out of the closet in 1994, Beth became an undergraduate at UCLA, where she landed a position writing script coverage at Atlas Entertainment on Sunset Boulevard under the late Dawn Steel, the first woman to ever head a major motion picture company (Columbia Entertainment). After earning a BA in Philosophy and yearning to see beyond California, Beth later discovered her love of documentary while undertaking an internship with Oscar winner Lee Grant at her company Feury Grant Entertainment in New York City in 2000, where she was quickly promoted to Production Associate. Eager to see even more of the world, Beth left the US in 2004 to travel Thailand, India, and eventually landed in Melbourne, Australia, where she earned her Master of Arts in Film & Television, focusing on Directing Documentary, from the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Upon graduation in 2007, Beth earned Most Promising Director for her thesis project, LOVE REFUGEES. 

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In 2012 she co-directed with Ana Grillo, CAMP BEAVERTON: MEET THE BEAVERS an indie feature that enjoyed a very successful world tour and video on demand release. The film has had over one million online views. She also worked as an editor on AT YOUR CERVIX, a documentary by Sexual Empowerment Coach Amy Jo Goddard, to uncover the unethical ways in which medical students learn gynecology & promote women's health. Most recently, Beth's film MOTHERSHIP, the documentary, was released on Amazon. Currently, she is developing “Pancha’s,” a documentary which chronicles the only dive bar in America’s otherwise prestigious Wine Country which just so happens to belong to her biological family, whom she met when she was 18. In true muli-tasking, rabbit pulling fashion, Beth is also in development of a manuscript a relative wrote while in prison. Stay tuned!

 

In Napa, Beth serves on the Napa County Mental Health Board as Vice Chair, on the Napa County Progressive Alliance Board as Communications Chair, and also on the Board of Napa Vision 2050. Additionally, she runs the YoutTube channel, Diversity Watch Napa. Beth is of Tewa descent and has worked with the local Suscol Intertribal Council, directing short films for them, for a number of years. She sees it has her mission to make the seemingly impossible to understand palatable. 

 

Beth’s mom would tell you she fights for the underdog. Ultimately, Beth is a filmmaker whose passions include the wide umbrella of social impact, Indigenous history, trauma theory, climate justice, identity and anything personal, all captured and expressed through multi-layered storytelling. 

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Note on the above photo: On a personal note, Beth Nelsen has known for a very long time that she was not like the other girls. Born to a young teen who could not keep her, Beth was adopted by a couple of stellar white people who longed for a baby to call their own. A quiet and shy child who often had her differences pointed out by her classmates, Beth survived her childhood, blossoming into the tangible proof that you never know where life will take you!