** Now through January 15, 2012 we are running a Kickstarter campaign to raise finishing funds for Unorthodox, the film that I have been working on for seven years! Check out the trailer and spread the word! **
Anna Wexler is a Tel Aviv-based freelance writer and filmmaker. She graduated Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007 with two Bachelors’ of Science degrees, one in Brain and Cognitive Science and the other in Humanities and Science with a focus in Writing. Since her move to Israel in late 2008, she has been writing for a number of outlets about science and travel, and she occasionally writes about food and music.
Wexler specializes in science and medical writing. She recently wrote and produced an exclusive magazine about the brain, Gray Matters, for the Hebrew University. Wexler writes regularly for the Hebrew University, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, IDC Herzliya, University of Haifa, CogniFit, and others. Her writing and accompanying photography have been published in magazines (Maxim, 18, Glimpse, Budget Travel, Mir Afishu), books (Best Women's Travel Writing 2011, It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure, A Stingray Bit My Nipple: True Stories from Real Travelers) and online (WGBH Lab, hotels.vc, Glimpse Online, telavivcity.com). As a student, Wexler interned at WGBH’s NOVA, where she researched and edited science-related stories for national broadcast on PBS. Wexler also completed an internship at the Harvard University Office of News and Public Affairs, where she profiled prominent scientists for Harvard’s website. Wexler garnered five writing awards while she was a student at MIT.
In addition to her writing work, Wexler is also a documentary filmmaker. She was selected as a 2007-2008 Filmmaker-in-residence at WGBH. Wexler, along with fellow filmmaker Nadja Oertelt, is currently directing and co-producing a feature-length documentary entitled Unorthodox that follows three rebellious Orthodox Jewish high school teenagers through a transformative post-high school year in Israel. The film has been awarded eight grants and has already received interest in broadcast and distribution from Independent Lens, P.O.V., and Documentary Educational Resources. (Check out the Unorthodox Facebook page, website, and Twitter.)
In 2005, Wexler and Oertelt co-directed and co-produced “A Piece of Cake,” a short video about a date gone wrong. “A Piece of Cake” went on to win Cambridge University’s Cinecam 48 Hours Film Festival (2005) and the Chris Pomiecko Prize (2006). In 2007, Wexler co-produced and co-directed “Spice Cream,” which documented several MIT students extracting capsaicin from chile peppers and using it to create a new ice cream flavor. “Spice Cream” went on to win second prize in MIT’s TechTV video competition and is currently being shown to elementary school children across the United States.
Wexler spent five years conducting scientific research at various neuroscience labs including those at MIT, Harvard University, Cambridge University, and the University of Iowa. She has worked on projects relating to Theory of Mind reasoning, moral cognition, prosopagnosia, the neural and psychophysical effects of meditation, and causal learning in preschoolers. Most recently, she investigated the neural basis of point-of-view perception in film. Wexler’s extensive neuroscience research has resulted in two awards, several abstracts, an election to the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, and publications in Neuropsychologia (2005) and Brain Research Bulletin (2011).
One of Wexler’s greatest passions is adventure travel. At the age of eighteen, Wexler purchased a one-way ticket to Katmandu. She spent the next month trekking through the Himalayas to Mount Everest and the remainder of the year traveling throughout Asia. Wexler has embarked on numerous self-funded and self-planned trips, including a motorcycle tour of remote Northern Vietnam, a journey on the Tran Siberian Railroad, a solo bicycle journey across Mexico, and a month-long trek on Turkey’s southwest coast. (Photographs and info about many of her trips are available here.) While living in Boston, Wexler served on the board of the New England Chapter of the Explorers Club, where she helped organize events such as an entomophagy tasting session and gave an occasional talk about exploration.
Wexler enjoys working with other forms of media. In 2004, she co-hosted a weekly radio show on Boston’s 88.1 WMBR that featured live in-studio jazz performances. In 2007, Wexler co-narrated a tour of Frank Gehry’s Stata Center for Untravel Media, the mobile media documentary series. She was a member of the Boston art collective the New Factographers, where she helped direct the multimedia fashion show Paradosaurus Wreck.
Wexler currently serves as a member of MIT’s Educational Council. She used to be a professional fire performer (poi, hula hoop, breathing) and has performed at dozens of events worldwide.
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contact info: anna [at] annawexler dot com; follow me on Twitter