GOOD TALK WITH NATALIE PATTILLO

Natalie Pattillo is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, writer, and journalist based in Providence, Rhode Island. Her bylines can be found in MSNBC, VICE, New York Magazine, The New York Review of Books, and more. Natalie is co-director, writer, and producer of AND SO I STAYED, which won festival awards and was acclaimed by The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, ABC News, Bloomberg, and Vox News. She is Co-Founder and Head of Story of Full Picture Studios, a video and audio storytelling project that aims to free survivors of abuse who are unjustly incarcerated. Natalie is currently working on her second feature-length documentary, WRITING FOR MY MOTHER, which explores the declining adult literacy rates in America.

Natalie was awarded the Media Award from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She received a Master’s degree from Columbia Journalism School in 2017. She speaks with audiences such as court systems, law firms, advocacy organizations, and universities about the nuances of intimate partner and family violence and how systems can fail survivors of abuse; what communities can do to support survivors before, during, and after crisis; why survivors of abuse shouldn't be treated as a monolith or why there is no "perfect victim"; breaking the harmful cycles of generational trauma; and what healing justice can look like for those impacted by family violence; and the importance of trauma-informed filmmaking and storytelling. In her free time, Natalie enjoys gardening and cooking with her husband and three kids.

Expertise
Because of lived experience as survivor and having lost her sister to domestic violence, Natalie understands deeply the dynamics of an abusive relationship and what many survivors face when they are being subjected to abuse and the barriers in their way in seeking safety. Students and audiences will come away with a better understanding nuances of intimate partner and family violence and how systems can fail survivors of abuse; what communities can do to support survivors before, during, and after crisis; why survivors of abuse shouldn't be treated as a monolith or why there is no "perfect victim"; breaking the harmful cycles of generational trauma; and what healing justice can look like for those impacted by family violence; and the importance of trauma-informed filmmaking and storytelling.

Speaking History
Columbia University, Brooklyn Law School, New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Safe Harbor, Manhattan College, Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Exhale to Inhale Community Conversations, Ascend Justice, Logan Correctional Facility