Dr. Fortwangler is a filmmaker and photographer who seeks to bring beauty and light as well as introspection into the world through her creative practice. She infuses her films with the knowledge she gained as an applied anthropologist and works to show people their inner and outer beauty through portrait photography. She also focuses on macro nature photography as a way to remind us of the beauty right in front of us if we look close enough.

Dr. Fortwangler has directed the Film program at Tzohar Seminary since 2014 and recently established the Photography program as well. Each year she works with students to create narrative, documentary, and experimental films that bring together the students’ coursework in Chassidus and in the arts. She also chairs the Film and Photography programs at La Roche University where she has been a faculty member since 2018. Prior to that she was a faculty member in sustainability at Chatham University where she began a focus on environmental filmmaking. In the past, she also worked and taught at Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Pittsburgh Center for Arts & Media. She is currently working with Temple Sinai in Squirrel Hill to offer photography programming.

In addition to living and working in Pittsburgh, Dr. Fortwangler spent two decades collaborating with artists and scholars in the US Virgin Islands. She has made numerous documentary films and published academic articles that explore relationships to place and addressing historical injustices. She has also spent significant time in Israel, once joining in part of a Tzohar student trip, helping students create films based on their experiences there. She has also worked with Israeli colleagues on environmental projects, including co-writing a successful grant application to National Geographic Society to create films on protecting the Red Sea from plastic pollution.

Dr. Fortwangler studied filmmaking and photography at Pittsburgh Filmmakers, and received a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology and environmental studies at the University of Michigan, a MA in International Relations at the University of Chicago, and a BA in Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown.