Brett (B.J.) Kuxhausen

For me, storytelling is an obsession, an addiction. I’m a cinephile, a voracious reader, and an enthusiastic explorer of the imaginative worlds of video games and Dungeons & Dragons. I’m fascinated by the ways stories transport us, unsettle us, challenge our assumptions, and make us see familiar things anew. And I believe stories have the power to bring the unseen into view, build bridges across differences, and inspire us to imagine a more just world for all life. Through documentary filmmaking and photography, I try to harness that power, telling stories of resilient lives and landscapes that illuminate our relationship with the natural world, leave room for hope, and invite audiences to see the world differently.

The heartland of the American Midwest is where I learned to pay attention: to laughter around the card table at my grandparents’ farm, to the stories of lives well-lived at the mortuary where I worked as a teenager, and to the everyday rhythms of crops, communities, and critters that defined my corner of the world. After earning a BS in Biological Sciences, with a focus on animal behavior, and later an MFA in Science and Natural History Filmmaking, I found a way to bring these interests together through documentary storytelling—a practice rooted in curiosity, empathy, and a deep attention to the living world.

I currently work as a filmmaker and photographer for the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI), collaborating closely with conservation scientists, animal care professionals, and keepers to create original visual stories connecting research, animal welfare, and public engagement. My work spans conservation initiatives around the world and closer to home, from elephant conservation in Laos and Thailand to research on swift foxes, black-footed ferrets, and prairie dogs through the Great Plains Science Program, and grassland bird research through the Virginia Working Landscapes Program. At the National Zoo, I document the daily work of animal care teams as they support animal health, enrichment, training, and welfare. Created for exhibits and digital platforms, these stories offer audiences an inside look at the expertise, dedication, and relationships behind the Smithsonian’s work in wildlife conservation.

My work has earned an Emmy Award and been nominate multiple times, as well as other major national recognition for documentaries I’ve shot and produced. I’ve collaborated with major broadcasters, including National Geographic, the BBC, and PBS, as well as conservation organizations such as Rainforest Trust, The Nature Conservancy, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Notably, I was the embedded cinematographer and field producer at Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, where I helped create feature-length films, television specials, and short-form stories for audiences in Mozambique and around the world, working with partners including National Geographic, PBS, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Tangled Bank Studios.

My photography and writing have been exhibited and published internationally, including at the National Geographic Museum of Exploration and the Smithsonian. My work has also been commissioned or published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Associated Press, The Nature Conservancy, African Geographic, Mongabay, and Nature.