Katerina Cizek

Katerina Cizek is an influential figure in international media, with over 25 years of experience as a Peabody- and Emmy-winning documentarian, author, producer, and senior leader working with collective processes and emergent technologies.

She is the co-founder, research scientist, and artistic director of the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab. She is lead author (with Uricchio) on  the world’s first comprehensive book on co-creating media, Collective Wisdom, published by MIT Press in 2022. At the studio, she designs and leads innovative incubators, workshops, research projects, delegations, and fellowships fusing art, documentary, and journalism with emergent tech and science.

For over a decade, Cizek worked as a documentary director at the National Film Board of Canada, transforming the organization into a world leader of digital storytelling with the projects HIGHRISE and Filmmaker-in-Residence, which is recognized as the the world’s first long-form web-based interactive documentary, launched in 2006. Currently, Cizek serves on multiple boards, including the inaugural Interactive Board of Jurors for the Peabody Awards (chair),  the inaugural Interdisciplinary Advisory Board at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the UK, as well as the AKO Storytelling Institute at the University of the Arts London. She is a mentor for the fellows progam at NEW INC in New York City. She has advised many media labs, including Sundance, ESoDOC (Italy), and CPH:LAB (Denmark). She is the Executive Producer for Assia Boundaoui’s 2022 Inverse Surveillance Project. Cizek was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and, prior to that, a Visiting Artist at MIT. She is a proud member of the Directors’ Guild of Canada. As a frequent keynote speaker, panelist, and moderator, she advises on, designs, and facilitates programs around the world.