Bill Gentile Journalist in Residence Film and Media Arts
- Additional Positions at AU
- Director, Backpack Journalism Project
- Degrees
- Undergraduate Penn State University.
Master's Degree, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio - Bio
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Bill Gentile is the author of, “Wait for Me: True Stories of War, Love and Rock & Roll,” his memoir and crown jewel of a career as independent journalist and documentary filmmaker whose work spans four decades, five continents and nearly every facet of journalism and mass communication.
He is a full-time professor of the School of Communication (SOC) at American University (AU) in Washington, DC. He is the founder of AU’s Backpack Journalism Project, a pioneer of “backpack video journalism” and one of the craft’s most noted practitioners. He authored the highly acclaimed, “Essential Video Journalism Field Manual,” and its Spanish-language counterpart, “Manual Esencial de Produccion Video Periodismo.” He has conducted Backpack Journalism Workshops from Cuba to Ghana, from Bangkok to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.
He covered stories from Central America, to the Persian Gulf, to Iraq and Afghanistan. He engineered the SOC’s partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and remains the driving force behind that initiative. He won two national Emmy Awards and was nominated for two others. He is the director, executive producer and host of the documentary series, “FREELANCERS with Bill Gentile.” He teaches Photojournalism, Foreign Correspondence, Backpack Documentary and the first Spanish-language class ever taught in the School of Communication.
His recent work also includes, “Fire and Ice on the Mountain,” a short documentary about the impact of climate change on Peruvians’ relationship with the glacier of Huaytapallana, and “When the Forest Weeps,” a short film that examines how Ecuador’s Kichwa Indians struggle as their deep spiritual relationship with the Amazonian rain forest diminishes in a clash with the forces of so-called modernity.
He also shot, produced and wrote the 2015 documentary, “Afghan Dreams,” about four Afghan law students – all female – who defy all odds to compete in the world’s most important competition of international commercial law. In 2013, he shot, produced, wrote and narrated a three-part film series on religion and gangs in Guatemala. The three films, “I. The Gangs,” “II. The Researcher,” and “III. The Pastor.”
Additional work in Cuba includes “Reading While They Roll: Cuba’s Cigar Factory Tradition,” for Time.com. Also on the Time Magazine Web site, see “Cuba’s (Rocky) Love Affair with the Harley-Davidson.”
His previous works include “Nurses Needed,” about the nursing shortage across the United States, and “Afghanistan: The Forgotten War,” about America’s deepening involvement in that Central Asian country. Broadcast in 2008 by NOW on PBS, the stories were named NOW’s Number 1 and Number 3, respectively, most popular of the year. For the Afghanistan piece, he was nominated for a national Emmy Award.
Gentile began in 1977 as reporter for the Mexico City News and correspondent for United Press International (UPI) based in Mexico City. He covered the 1979 Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua and later spent two years as editor on UPI’s Foreign Desk in New York, then moved to Nicaragua and became Newsweek Magazine’s Contract Photographer for Latin America and the Caribbean. His book of photographs, “Nicaragua,” won the Overseas Press Club Award for Excellence, Honorable Mention. He covered the U.S.-backed Contra War in Nicaragua and the Salvadoran Civil War in the 1980s; the U.S. invasion of Panama; the 1994 invasion of Haiti, the ongoing conflict with Cuba, the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War and the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He worked in Ivory Coast, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Chad, Angola, Rwanda and Burundi.
- See Also
- Gentile's Web site
- Gentile's Reel
- Blog: Bill Gentile Backpack Journalism
- Backpack Journalism Project
- For the Media
- To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.
Teaching
Spring 2024
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COMM-544 Foreign Correspondence
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COMM-560 Backpack Documentary
Fall 2024
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CORE-107 Complex Problems Seminar: Why We Fight: U.S. War & Peace
Partnerships & Affiliations
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Research Interests
International affairs, conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East, Islamic fundamentalism, Latin America and the Caribbean, foreign correspondence.
Selected Publications
- Nicaragua, book of photographs made in that Central American nation during the Contra War of the 1980s. Published by W.W. Norton.
Media Appearances
- Interviewed for and appeared on cover of Society of Professional Journalists’ Quill magazine.
- Interviewed in Columbia Journalism Review about coverage of Afghanistan.
- NOW on PBS story, "Afghanistan: The Forgotten War," is basis of major article on counter-insurgency in the September 2008 edition of CQResearcher.
- Review in the August edition of Yoga Journal, regarded as the most authoritative publication of its genre, called my film, Underground Yoga, an experience “not to be missed by beginners exploring different yoga schools or seasoned practitioners.”
- Featured in American University online publication “American Today” in story about teaching while embedded with U.S. Marines in Afghanistan.
- Featured in American University online publication “American Today” in story about NOW on PBS stories, "Nurses Needed" and "Afghanistan: The Forgotten War."
- Featured in two award-winning documentaries about international journalism, The World Is Watching and The World Stopped Watching.
- Variety highlighted Prof. Bill Gentile as one of ten Leaders in Learning for its "Education Impact Report '09" issue www.variety.com/article/VR1118001709.html
Professional Presentations
- Regular judge at Defense Information School (DINFOS) at Ft. Meade, Md.
- Organized and moderated Media and the Military: An Uneasy Mix, a panel discussion, widely attended by students and faculty. The panel was co-produced with the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.
- Participant in panel discussion, “Military Policy and Media Access in the New Administration,” held in November 2008 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
- Made two presentations, one in Spanish, at the 10 International Symposium on Online Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin onlinejournalismsymposium.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/backpack-journalism-with-bill-gentile
- Delivered presentation on insurgency/counterinsurgency at special course on the "Military and the Media" for the School of International Studies at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington, DC.
Films/Documentaries
- Documentary Consultant on The White House: Inside America’s Most Famous Home, a full-length documentary on the president’s residence.
- Produced and shot Nurses Needed, broadcast by NOW on PBS and named Number 1 most popular story of 2008.
- Produced, shot, wrote and narrated Afghanistan: The Forgotten War, broadcast by NOW on PBS and named Number 3 most popular story of 2008.
- Produced and shot Underground Yoga, a full-length documentary on yoga masters in Greece.
- Produced, shot and wrote DATELINE AFGHANISTAN: Reporting the Forgotten War, on foreign correspondents working in Afghanistan.
- Produced, shot, wrote and narrated Tough Act to Follow, NOW on PBS.
- Produced, shot, wrote and narrated Echoes of War, on NOW with Bill Moyers.
- Produced and shot Doctors Without Borders, on National Geographic Television.
- Produced, shot, co-wrote and narrated The Voice of Hope, on ABC’s Nightline With Ted Koppel.
- Shot Trauma: Life in the ER, on The Learning Channel.
Honors, Awards, and Fellowships
“Nurses Needed” and “Afghanistan: The Forgotten War,” stories done for NOW on PBS, named Number 1 and Number 3, respectively, as the top stories broadcast by NOW in 2008. www.pbs.org/now/shows/442/index.html
www.pbs.org/now/shows/428/index.html
Multimedia
- Reporter’s Notebook for NOW on PBS about coverage of 24th marine Expeditionary Unit in Afghanistan.
- Created and maintain Foreign Correspondence Network (FCN).
Professional Services
- “Documentary Consultant” for C-SPAN production, The White House: Inside America’s Most Famous House. This production has become the Number 1 bestseller of any C-SPAN production to date. - Professional web site.
- Conducts regular Backpack Journalism Workshops With NOW on PBS www.pbs.org/now/shows/440/Journalism-Workshop.html
AU Experts
Area of Expertise
International affairs; photojournalism; conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East, Islamic fundamentalism, Latin America and the Caribbean; foreign correspondence; backpack documentary; social documentary; .
Additional Information
Bill Gentile is an independent journalist and documentary filmmaker at American University, where he brings 30 years of field experience and professional contacts to the next generation of communicators. In 2008, Gentile traveled with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (24th MEU) in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand Province. The film he produced and shot, Afghanistan: The Forgotten War, was broadcast by NOW on PBS. Later in the year he shot and produced a story on America’s nursing shortage, also broadcast on PBS. In December C-SPAN broadcast, The White House: Inside America’s Most Famous Home, on which he worked as Documentary Consultant. Gentile teaches Photojournalism, Foreign Correspondence and Backpack Documentary
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.