Penelope Jagessar Chaffer is a multi-award winning filmmaker, TED speaker, creative technologist and global environmentalist. She is the inaugural Sundance Institute Artist in Residence in partnership with Johns Hopkins University and is a Sundance Institute New Frontier Lab Programs Grantee. Penelope is the first Black, female director to be nominated for a British Academy award. She has spent more than fifteen years investigating the health effects of toxic chemicals on pregnant women, babies and children, a journey that is told in the triptych Toxic Baby. This project comprises of the documentary, “Toxic Baby: The Betrayal of Innocence,” the VR component “Toxic Baby: Gravidas Immersum” and interactive, customizable app “Toxic Baby: AI.”
An alumni of New Inc, the New Museum’s renowned art, technology and design incubator in NYC, she has been recognized for her work by Healthy Child, Healthy World, named by Vanity Fair magazine as one of Michelle Obama’s two favorite charities. Penelope’s TED talk with Professor Tyrone Hayes on the effects of toxic chemicals on pregnant women and their babies has been viewed over half a million times and she has spoken at the influential TEDxBrussels before members of the European Union political community. She lives with her two children in New York City.
While at OpenDocLab, Penelope is working on The Chemistry of Racism, a multimedia triptych exploring the systematic and often deliberate poisoning and exploitation of the Black body.