
Director
Ian Cheney
16 films
Ian Cheney is an Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker. He has completed ten feature documentaries, including King Corn (2007), The Greening of Southie (2008), The City Dark (2011), The Search for General Tso (2014), Bluespace (2015), The Most Unknown (2018), The Emoji Story (2019), Thirteen Ways (2019), Picture a Scientist (2020) and The Long Coast (2020). His short films include Two Buckets (2006), Truck Farm (2010), The Melungeons (2013), The Smog of the Sea (2016) and The Measure of a Fog (2017). He received bachelor’s & master’s degrees from Yale University, and an MFA in Film from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. A former MacDowell Fellow & Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, he lives in midcoast Maine. For more information about Ian’s films, visit www.wickedelicate.com.
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The best way into Ian Cheney's work
First watchThe Most Unknown20186.6An epic documentary film that sends nine scientists to extraordinary parts of the world to uncover unexpected answers to some of humanity’s biggest questions.View filmEssential films
Ranked by acclaim and reachFilmography
16 films as director- 2026The Work in ProgressDirector
- 2025ObserverDirector
- 2024Shelf LifeDirector
- 2023Fight Like Hell: The Testimony of Mother JonesDirector
- 2023The Arc of OblivionDirector
- 2020Picture a ScientistDirector
- 2020The Long CoastDirector
- 2019The Emoji StoryDirector
- 2018The Most UnknownDirector
- 2017The Smog of the SeaDirector
- 2015BluespaceDirector
- 2014The Search for General TsoDirector
- 2013The MelungeonsDirector
- 2012The City DarkDirector
- 2011Truck FarmDirector
- 2008The Greening of SouthieDirector
