Emmy-winning filmmaker Pailin Wedel returns to UNC Hussman
When international Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker and UNC Hussman alumna Pailin Wedel returned to campus to present the Price Cone Liptzin lecture, she offered career advice and insight into her process and perspective.
“Being a journalist risks becoming a pessimist,” she said. “But in the world, there is both sadness and joy.”
After graduating from UNC in 2004, Pailin worked for The Charlotte Observer as a photojournalist before moving back to Asia where she worked as a freelance investigative journalist, director and filmmaker for media organizations such as National Geographic, Al Jazeera and The New York Times.
The success of Wedel’s work has been attributed to her ability to objectively present emotional and controversial subject matters. From documenting rats trained to sniff out land mines, to interviewing former meth dealers, she creates content that is raw, honest and deeply human.
“Early in my career, I confused being objective with being unemotional,” she said. “But empathy drives objectivity.”
This holds true in her 2020 Netflix film “Hope Frozen,” a documentary that follows a Thai family who made the controversial decision to cryopreserve their terminally ill daughter. Wedel wanted to accurately portray the complex emotions that went into this decision and stray from the “mad scientist” narrative journalists had previously presented. This film sparked critical acclaim and became the first Thai documentary to win an Emmy. The results, as she puts it, is “a film about radical hope, something we all need right now.”
Wedel’s commitment to holistic storytelling carried into her next project, “The Trapped 13.” Her second Netflix documentary followed the news sensation of the Thai youth soccer team that was successfully rescued after being trapped in a flooded cave for 17 days. Wedel was given a unique opportunity to personally get to know and interview the boys, shifting the narrative away from the spectacle to the lived experience during and after their rescue. During production, Wedel centered her approach around two key questions: “Are we retraumatizing them, and are we trying our best to tell the truth?”
“Empathy pushes me to document. Ethics give my subjects empathy,” she said.
During her lecture, Wedel took audience members on an authentic journey throughout her career. Starting as a student at UNC Hussman and discovering her passion for photojournalism, navigating career changes and international moves, as well as speaking earnestly about the not-so-glamorous side of working in a creative field. Wedel spoke candidly about resilience, rejection, and the importance of having a strong support system and an even stronger sense of self.
Wedel recently wrapped up her latest project, ‘Heals’ a story that follows Pangina Heals, a drag queen and the first Thai native to hold a Las Vegas residency. This film follows themes of identity, expression and multigenerational trauma.
From project to project, Wedel continues to redefine what it means to tell a story that’s both objective and heartfelt. Her visit to UNC Hussman served as a reminder to the campus community that journalism and documentary filmmaking aren’t just about sharing facts, but honoring humanity in its most complex moments.