Robert Koenig (born July 9, 1975 in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, USA) is an American film director, producer, writer and editor. Koenig directed the documentary film " Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army", which won the 2008 Artivist Award for Child Advocacy and produced "Coexist", which was nominated for Best Documentary Film by the

Africa Movie Academy Awards The Africa Movie Academy Awards is an annual entertainment award ceremony presented to recognize excellence among African and non-African professionals, who have contributed to the African film industry. The award was founded by Peace Anyiam-Osig ...

(AMAA)
in 2011.

Early life

Robert Koenig grew up in Hawley, Pennsylvania and graduated from the

Wallenpaupack Area School District Wallenpaupack Area School District is a Local government in Pennsylvania#School districts, third-class school district in Pike County, Pennsylvania, Pike and Wayne County, Pennsylvania, Wayne Counties in Pennsylvania. The district's populatio ...

in 1993. Koenig attended the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

and

Pittsburgh Filmmakers Pittsburgh Filmmakers was one of the oldest and largest media arts centers in the United States, operating from 1971 to 2019. The non-profit institution in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania began as a filmmaking equipment access cooperative founded by cu ...

to study filmmaking; he graduated in 1998.

Early career

In 1999, Robert Koenig directed his first documentary, "The Wrestler's Second: The Story of Mongolia's Struggle with Yadargaa", in

Ulan Bator Ulaanbaatar is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1.6 million, and it is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The municipality is located in north central Mongolia at an ...

, Mongolia. The documentary follows a Mongolian man who is diagnosed with mysterious disease called Yadargaa. The film documents his attempts to find a cure while traveling through the

Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert (, , ; ) is a large, cold desert and grassland region in North China and southern Mongolia. It is the sixth-largest desert in the world. The name of the desert comes from the Mongolian word ''gobi'', used to refer to all of th ...

. After Koenig returned from living

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

for most of 1999, he started working at

WCJB-TV WCJB-TV (channel 20) is a television station in Gainesville, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW Plus. Owned by Gray Media, the station maintains studios on Northwest 43rd Street in Gainesville, and its transmitter is locate ...

in Gainesville, FL. During his time at

, he produced and edited the documentary style show "Police Beat" from 2000 to 2003. In 2003, Koenig moved to

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, Georgia where he worked in public broadcasting, WPBA, and as a special projects producer for

WGCL-TV WANF (channel 46) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is the flagship property of locally based Gray Media and is co-owned with CW affiliate WPCH-TV (channel 17) and low-power, Class A Telem ...

(CBS46) and

WXIA-TV WXIA-TV (channel 11) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WATL (channel 36). The two stations share studios at One Monroe Place on the north end ...

(11 Alive). He was nominated for an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

for his work on the "

Georgia Aquarium Georgia Aquarium is a public aquarium in Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The aquarium exhibits hundreds of species and thousands of animals across its seven major galleries, all of which reside in more than of water. It was the larges ...

's Fun Fish Facts" series in 2007.

Documentary Films

In 2007, Robert Koenig teamed up with medical anthropologist, Brandon Kohrt to document the stories of several child soldiers who were associated with the

Unified Communist Party of Nepal Unified may refer to: * The Unified, a wine symposium held in Sacramento, California, USA * ''Unified'', the official student newspaper of Canterbury Christ Church University * UNFD, an Australian record label * ''Unified'' (Sweet & Lynch album), ...

. " Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" tells the personal story of Nepali boys and girls as they attempt to rebuild their lives after fighting a Maoist revolution. Through the voices of former child soldiers, the film examines why these children joined the Maoists and explores the prevention of future recruitment. In 2009, Koenig produced "Coexist" a documentary film that was shot in

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

and tells the stories of trauma survivors searching for ways to coexist with their loved ones' murderers. Koenig also served as Field Producer during production of "Coexist" in

and continued to serve as the story consultant while the documentary was in post-production. "Coexist" premiered in Boston in November 2010 and in March 2011, "Coexist" was nominated for Best Documentary Film by the

(AMAA). For the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, "Coexist" aired on PBS’s World Channel on April 16, 2014 and was reviewed by

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

Philanthropy

In 2014, Robert Koenig along with Brandon Kohrt and Libby King MacFarlane founded HeartMind International, a public charity (501(c)(3)) with the mission to provide culturally-appropriate and sustainable mental health care to vulnerable populations. After the

April 2015 Nepal earthquake The April 2015 Nepal earthquake (also known as the Gorkha earthquake) killed 8,962 people and injured 21,952 across the countries of Nepal, India, China and Bangladesh. It occurred at on Saturday 25 April 2015, with a magnitude of Moment magni ...

, HeartMind International implemented its earthquake response plan by offering psychological first aid training for first responders, community health workers, and NGO workers through Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO-Nepal).

Filmography

Director/Writer/Producer

* '' Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army'' (2008) * ''The Wrestler's Second: The Story of Mongolia's Struggle with Yadargaa'' (2008) * '' Returned'' (2009)

Producer

*''Coexist'' (2009) *''People Will Talk TV'' (2013) *''Coexist'' (2014)

Bibliography

Robert Koenig has published articles and photos including: *''Child Soldiers'', Edited by Leora Kahn • (2008) *''Child Soldiers after War'', by Robert Koenig and Brandon Kohrt (published in Anthropology News, May 2009) *Koenig, R and Kohrt, B (2012). Black Water (safe water education; Nepal). In E Mendenhall and A Koon (Eds), "Environmental Health Narratives: A Reader for Youth" UNM Press 2012 • (2012) *''Heal Thy Neighbor'', by Bruce Bower, still images and captions by Robert Koenig (published in Science News, November 29, 2013) *Koenig, R, Kohrt, B and Kohrt, H (2015). Following the Money in Mongolia. In Gillian H. Ice; Darna L. Dufour And Nancy J. Stevens (Eds), "Disasters in Field Research "Atla Mira Press, division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2015 • (2015)

References

External links

*
HeartMind International
*
Coexist Adventure Production Pictures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koenig, Robert American male screenwriters American documentary filmmakers 1975 births Living people