Natalie Hewit Profile Picture

Keynote SpeakerNatalie Hewit

Film Director & Adventurer

Natalie Hewit is an award-winning film director and producer who has been making prime-time documentaries for major broadcasters – including the BBC, National Geographic and Netflix – for more than a decade. Her work has received widespread industry recognition and critical acclaim including an RTS Award and nominations for a... Read more

Biography

Natalie Hewit is an award-winning film director and producer who has been making prime-time documentaries for major broadcasters – including the BBC, National Geographic and Netflix – for more than a decade. Her work has received widespread industry recognition and critical acclaim including an RTS Award and nominations for a BAFTA, a Royal Television Society Award and a Grierson Award. With human narratives at their core, her projects have taken her to numerous remote and highly challenging locations including an Antarctic research station, natural disaster zones and behind the scenes with the Metropolitan Police.

Her most recent project, “Endurance”, marked her second visit to Antarctica, where she documented the expedition to find the wreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship in the toughest conditions on the planet. The film was co-directed with Oscar-winners Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi and premiered at the BFI London Film Festival 2024 before selling out in UK cinemas.

She is a member of the Explorers Club and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and has served on the Documentary Awards Jury for the Director’s Guild of America.

Popular Talks by Natalie Hewit

  • Finding and Filming Shackleton’s Endurance in Antarctica
    Natalie recounts how she filmed one of the greatest moments in recent history as the infamous shipwreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance was discovered in Antarctica in 2022. She takes us behind the scenes of the hunt – and the challenge of the highly complex polar film shoot – to...
  • Women Filmmakers in Extreme Environments
    Natalie is a female documentary director who has specialised in filming in high-risk environments and has shot two films on location in Antarctica, facing extremely challenging conditions head-on. As a result, she is passionate about encouraging women to overcome the many obstacles that they face in their personal and professional...
  • Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition

    Natalie has spend over a decade studying the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. As she guides us through the story of his infamous “Endurance” expedition, we discover some little-known aspects of the great man, and learn how a leader can turn his greatest failure into his greatest success.

  • Creativity and Exploration

    Many of us think that we are not creative but in this talk, Natalie takes a look at some of the greatest explorers from history, showing us that creativity can take many forms – and all of us are capable of it!

  • How to Move an Antarctic Research Station
    In 2016, Natalie spent 3 months living and filming at a British Antarctic Survey research station as the team there attempted to achieve a world first – moving the whole station 23km across a floating ice shelf. In this talk, Natalie takes us behind the scenes of the move –...
  • Adventure and exploration
  • Endurance and resilience
  • Creativity and Collaboration
  • Inspirational women
  • Women in Media
  • Women in Leadership