Nancy Kelly

For 25 years, Nancy Kelly has produced and directed independent documentary and narrative films. She wrote, produced, and directed the PBS documentary Smitten, an invitation to enter the world of Rene di Rosa, an unusual art collector whose goal is neither about interior decorating nor increasing social status, but about the pure joy of discovery. Smitten received the DC Independent Film Festival Audience Award and shared the Aspen Shortsfest Audience Award. She also wrote, produced and directed the PBS documentary Downside UP, a first person story about MASS MoCA, America’s largest museum of contemporary art which opened in the abandoned factory where Ms. Kelly’s grandparents and parents once worked. Kelly developed, produced, and directed the critically acclaimed American Playhouse theatrical film Thousand Pieces of Gold, which was featured in over 20 international film festivals in the US and abroad and received the Audience Award at the Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival and the Best Feature of the Year Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. Kelly’s other work includes the award-winning documentaries Cowgirls: Portraits of American Ranch Women, A Cowhand’s Song: Crisis on the Range, and Sweeping Ocean Views.

While at Montalvo Kelly worked on the manuscript for When We Were Cowgirls, a non-fiction story based on her and a friend’s experiences as buckaroos in Nevada’s high desert.