S11e6: Jeff Orlowski-Yang – The Stories We Tell

Award-winning and celebrated filmmaker Jeff Orlowski-Yang is a masterful storyteller who documents the profound stories of our time. Founder and Creative Director of Exposure Labs, Jeff came to the Hoffman Process after hearing about it through many friends. One of Jeff’s friends knew a woman who was offering to pay for anyone ready to step into parenthood to attend the Process. Jeff was curious about and deeply moved by the nature of her offer. He felt there must be something important about the Process he’d heard so much about.

A key theme in this conversation is the power and nature of the stories we tell. The ones we carry on our backs, feeling like we cannot let them go, even knowing they are weighing us down. The ones we tell in hopes of changing hearts and minds. And the ones we create anew in our hopes for a different future. As a documentarian, Jeff knows both how to tell a great story and to listen to others telling their story. At his Process, he was able to listen deeply to the stories being shared around the classroom by his classmates. This helped him realize the nature of the story he has carried within.

In recounting his Process experience, Jeff weaves in the wisdom he’s gained from his work. He highlights the difference between communication and connection, a distinction that became clear to him while directing The Social Dilemma. And he speaks to the nature of change and how powerful stories can be great catalysts of change, both personally and collectively.

We hope you enjoy this illuminating conversation with Jeff and Drew.

More about Jeff Orlowski-Yang:

Jeff Orlowski-Yang is the Founder and Creative Director of Exposure Labs, a film and impact production studio that uses stories to change the world. Most recently, he directed Chasing Time (2024), a 40-minute short documentary currently screening at festivals around the world. Previously, he directed one of the most-watched documentaries on Netflix, The Social Dilemma (2020), which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, and was nominated for seven primetime Emmy awards, winning two. He was the director, producer, and cinematographer of the award-winning feature documentaries Chasing Coral (2017) and Chasing Ice (2012), both of which screened at Congress and the United Nations and have garnered awards and accolades worldwide.

Jeff has several directorial projects currently in development and continues to support other filmmakers from concept to impact campaign as an executive producer and mentor. Orlowski-Yang won the 2017 Champion of the Earth Award, the UN’s highest environmental honor, and serves on the boards of Green 2.0 and Netflix’s Sustainability Advisory Group. He has traveled on tour representing the Sundance Institute, President Obama’s Committee for the Arts and Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts, among many other speaking and press engagements.

Jeff lives in Boulder, Colorado. Learn more about or get in touch with him at JeffOrlowski-Yang.com.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

As mentioned in this episode:

eTown Studios
•   Take a video tour of eTown Studios.

Staten Island, New York

National Geographic Magazine

James Balog, National Geographic Photographer

Guinness World Record
•   Greenland – Largest calving event ever filmed: “CHASING ICE” Official Video

Coral bleaching in Australia – Coral turns white due to heat

The Adventure of Jason and the Argonauts from the Argonautica

Chasing Ice Trailer at Sundance
•   Nominated for an Academy Award

Existential Crisis

Tristan Harris – Tech ethicist and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology (CHT).

Thoreau quote, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…”