Shannon Kring is an Emmy-winning producer/director. Fearless humanitarian. Ally to the world’s forbidden and forgotten. Wielding the transformative power of storytelling, she amplifies the experiences of those left vulnerable and voiceless through years of systematic racial, economic, gender, geographic, and religious oppression. Her work changes minds, opens hearts, and inspires social and policy change. Shannon’s documentaries have been presented by dozens of governments, top international broadcasters, and institutions including the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the National Museum of the American Indian, NASA, MIT, and the British Museum. Shannon works with the UN, US Department of State, USAID, UNEP, and other global bodies concerning the Indigenous and other marginalized members of society, environmental sustainability, animal welfare, human rights, and cultural preservation. She is a UNWTO Liaison and serves as Honduras’ Official Goodwill Ambassador. 

While in her 20s and on a $300 line of credit, Shannon created a culinary empire consisting of a national, Emmy-winning PBS food documentary series; award-winning and bestselling cookbooks and memoirs published by Random House, Gibbs Smith, and Perseus Books; acclaimed restaurants and culinary schools for home and professional chefs; a cookware line sold on QVC and at Macy’s and other leading retailers; a culinary tour company; an international food and hospitality consultancy; and lucrative sponsor and endorsement deals. After a decade in the public eye, she left it all behind to document indigenous elders, world leaders, and global change makers in 70+ countries. Shannon’s unprecedented access into typically fiercely guarded groups and information enables her to lift the veil on never-before-seen cultural, spiritual, and culinary practices long shrouded in mystery and intrigue. She has conducted more than 3,000 interviews to date.

Shannon’s first feature documentary, 2012: THE BEGINNING was the most-watched of 1,600+ programs at MIPDoc, aired on 20+ TV networks worldwide, and was an official selection at nearly 100 film festivals. After living in places as diverse as Helsinki and San Pedro Sula, Honduras (then the Murder Capital of the World), Shannon returned to the US in 2016 to begin production on her new feature documentary END OF THE LINE: THE WOMEN OF STANDING ROCK. Among the film’s dozens of awards were the 2022 Hollywood Critics Association Television Award (Best Broadcast Network or Cable TV Documentary), the Stella Artois-Women in Film Finishing Fund Award, and the Clio Visualizing History Prize. It was nominated for the 2022 Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Justice Documentary and was runner-up for the Sandford St Martin Award for journalism. As the film’s writer, Shannon was nominated for the 2022 Humanitas Prize.

Shannon was the first US director and only third female director to receive the backing of the Finnish Film Foundation Award for END OF THE LINE. She went on to produce PHILLY ON FIRE, which won the 2022 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize.