Scripting the Truth with Amanda Pisetzner

In our first Alumni Lecture of the Fall 2023 season, Emmy-winning documentary storyteller Amanda Pisetzner will explore the surprising, challenging, and rewarding aspects of documentary and nonfiction writing.

From preparing for unpredictable moments to building rapport with characters, Amanda draws from personal experience to share best practices from each stage of the production process. Taken together, these experiences reveal the subtle but powerful ways documentaries are written and shaped —long before scripting ever begins.

Header Image: VICE on SHOWTIME , supervising producer Amanda Pisetzner

Amanda Pisetzner is an Emmy-award winning Producer, Emmy-nominated writer, and documentary storyteller. She has worked on series and specials for Showtime, HBO, NBC, The Discovery Channel, and others, both domestically and abroad. Amanda has developed, researched, field-produced, directed, story produced, and/or written both hosted and unhosted projects. These span from singular, character-driven profiles to complex, interwoven historical documentary features. She currently works as a Supervising Producer for the Emmy-Award winning series, VICE on Showtime.

Amanda’s work is motivated by her desire to bridge communities and cultivate empathy in an increasingly divided world. By centering characters’ stories and helping cultivate safe spaces for authentic interviews, Amanda appreciates documentary work for its magic: its capacity to foster deeper understanding, its ability to provide novel perspectives on shared human experiences, and its potential to inspire action. She also experiences joy and gratitude for work that encourages her to continuously learn more about the world and its people. Her favorite stories are ones that embody the complexities and nuances of people, their motivations for living, and the resilience of the human spirit.

Prior to working in TV and film, Amanda’s undergraduate work focused on the lived experiences of incarcerated and low-income women in both California and Pennsylvania. She was a recipient of the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Project for Peace Grant, was selected as a 2014 New Leaders Council Fellow, and served as an Associate Board Member to her alma mater, Lafayette College. She began her film and production career at NBC’s Page Program. Her professional awards include 10 Emmy nominations, 2 Emmy wins, an Alfred duPont Columbia Award, a Front-Page award, and others.

Upcoming scriptwriting workshop

Amanda will be teaching an online workshop Non-Fiction Scriptwriting (Online) this fall which examines the unique dynamics of writing a non-fiction script from the comfort of your own home. Don’t miss out!

Our 2023 Alumni Lecture series is brought to you by First National Wealth Management.