Naja Newell is a Documentary Filmmaker and Producer whose work centers ethnography and the emotional ties between humans and the natural world. She is drawn to stories that hold moral complexity and environmental tension through intimate, visually poetic narratives.

Her credits include Daughters of the Forest: Mycelium Chronicles (2026), Andre Is an Idiot (Audience Award, Sundance Film Festival 2025) co-produced with A24, How Deep Is Your Love (2025), A Life Illuminated (2025), and Underland (2025), as well as the short-documentary series, Elemental, with The New York Times.

She previously worked at Sandbox Films, the award-winning production company behind the Academy Award–nominated documentary Fire of Love, where she contributed to development and production across multiple nonfiction projects.

Her approach is rooted in ethical collaboration, narrative architecture, and emotional nuance. She is currently developing and directing documentary projects exploring community, language, and cultural memory.

She is currently producing a short documentary directed by Iyabo Boyd (in development), and a feature documentary at Equator Studio (in production).