Martha Foster

Martha Foster is a leading specialist in international documentary film and television. With graduate education in both anthropology and media, she has worked with universities, museums, festivals and broadcasters in the United States and Asia, created a highly prestigious juried international documentary festival, and developed story ideas for an Emmy award-winning documentary series for Chicago Public Television.

She has worked since late September of 2001 to establish and nurture the organization of Living Earth Television (LETV), and serves as Executive Director. The creation of Living Earth Television is the culmination of her life’s work with documentary, education and broadcasting.

Martha has worked and traveled extensively on four continents — Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. In September of 2008, she served as a judge for the new World Mountain Documentary Festival of Qinghai, China. In 2007, she spoke at the Magnolia Forum of the Shanghai International Television Festival. In 2001, and again in 2003, she was invited as the first and only American to serve as a juror for the Sichuan International Television Documentary Festival, a leading festival and broadcast market in Asia. She has taught television production personnel and students throughout China, including at Beijing, Chengdu, and Shanghai.

Martha has worked with the Smithsonian Institution, Chicago's Field Museum, Columbia College Chicago and Chicago Public Television. She has garnered recognition and awards at all phases of her career, including five Emmy awards in 2001-02, a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, and a Mass Media Fellowship through the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Beginning in 1995, she created and directed the Windy City International Documentary Festival. She has taught a Senior Seminar on Media and Values at Columbia College Chicago. She was selected as an Influential Woman in Business in 2003 by the National Association of Women Business Owners. She holds a Bachelors degree in Anthropology at Northwestern University and a Masters in Visual Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and has completed coursework for a Master of Fine Arts program in film and video at Columbia College Chicago.