Eli is a filmmaker, educator, and transdisciplinary artist based in midcoast Maine/Wabanakik, where he grew up. He has worked mentoring citizen media-makers in the Boston area, and produced TV shows for viewers across the Asia-Pacific region. While living in Taiwan, he worked for one of Asia’s largest factual TV production companies where he directed award-winning programs for Discovery Networks and the National Geographic Channel. More recently, he worked as a producer for Camden-based Compass Light Productions. He currently works independently and as a partner in community media center Torchlight Media. Eli attended UnionDocs' 2024 Summer Documentary Lab, and has received grants including a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts grant through SPACE Gallery and a 2022 LEF Foundation Moving Image Fund early development grant for an ongoing project related to eugenics, nostalgia, and archives. Eli is developing a documentary on the multiplicity of relations surrounding the freshwater eel, along with writer Michele Christle. They were selected as LEF/CIFF fellows in 2025. He serves on the board of Waterfall Arts and is a member of the Stories for Change working group of the Nature Based Education Consortium.
