Nels Bangerter is an award-winning documentary film editor. His work includes CAMERAPERSON, the critically-acclaimed winner of Cinema Eye Honors and International Documentary Association Best Editing awards as well as Cinema Eye's Outstanding Feature and grand jury awards for best documentary at San Francisco International Film Festival, Sheffield, Camden, and Montclair; LET THE FIRE BURN, Independent Spirit Awards' Truer Than Fiction Award winner, and winner of Best Editing awards from the IDA, Cinema Eye, and Tribeca Film Festival; Netflix's DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD, winner of Sundance's Special Jury Award for Innovation in Nonfiction Storytelling; Independent Lens' New York Times Critic's Pick THE HOTTEST AUGUST; HBO's VERY SEMI-SERIOUS, News and Documentary Emmy winner and SFIFF award winner; KUMU HINA, winner of the GLAAD Media Award for Best Documentary and PBS’s Independent Lens Audience Award; and WAR CHILD, which premiered at Berlin and won Tribeca’s Audience Award. Nels edited the Sundance short documentary PROJECT X, directed by Laura Poitras and Henrik Moltke and starring Michelle Williams and Rami Malek. He has been nominated twice for News and Documentary editing Emmys and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Nels has been an advisor at the Sundance Labs and has shared his experience on panels at Tribeca, Sundance, IDFA, Full Frame, Camden, and True/False Film Festivals. He has mentored projects for SFFILM, Firelight, True/False/Catapult Film Fund, ESPN/Tribeca Film Institute, BAVC, and Film Independent, and has given presentations for the Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship/Sundance D.F.P., IDA's Getting Real Conference, and True/False's Based On a True Story. Nels was also the editor of the short fiction film BUZKASHI BOYS, which was produced and edited in Kabul, Afghanistan and nominated for an Academy Award.
Based in Oakland, California, Nels holds an MFA in film production from USC. Before becoming an editor, he worked in a gold mine, lived in a redwood tree, and earned degrees in English and electrical engineering from Rice University. He has two terrific kids, ages three and seven.