Known for Directing
Nathan Truesdell is a multi-hyphenate filmmaker who has been nominated for an Academy Award, a PGA Award, an IDA Award, was selected for the inaugural “DOC NYC 40 Under 40” list, and won a Cinema Eye Honor for Cinematography. His directorial work includes the award-winning shorts BALLOONFEST, THE WATER SLIDE, THE ART OF MAKING MONEY, IT’S COMING!, WHEN THE LAPD BLOWS UP YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD, and MYSTERY SEEDS. He was the Camera Department Head and a Cinematographer for the HBO series HOW TO WITH JOHN WILSON and produced and co-DP’ed Jessica Kingdon’s ASCENSION登楼叹 (2021).
Born
May 30, 1979 (age 47)
Birthplace
Clark, Missouri
Filmography
24 films


A Derailment
2026 · 25m
country: Unknown
At 8:55 PM on February 3, 2023, a freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. Told entirely through found footage and news archive, A DERAILMENT puts you in the center of disaster. As local news coverage and publicly circulated footage unfold in real time, the film reveals not only the immediate catastrophe but the deepening crisis that followed—raising urgent questions about oversight, accountability, and the failures that allowed it to escalate.


Mystery Seeds
2025 · 9m
country: Unknown
After thousands of mysterious packages sow the seeds of a xenophobic conspiracy, we track its growth through local news, internet detectives, and your online shopping history.


When the LAPD Blows Up Your Neighborhood
2022 · 19m
country: United States
Tensions rise on a busy street as news organizations and local residents witness an extremely volatile situation turn into a literal powder keg.


It's Coming!
2020 · 9m
country: Unknown
In Las Vegas, they show the sex dolls; in China, they make them.


The Water Slide
2018 · 9m
country: United States
At nearly 169 feet tall, Verrückt was taller than Niagara Falls. Riders flew down the world's tallest water slide at 70 miles per hour, challenging the laws of physics. Then, on August 7, 2016, 10-year-old Caleb Schwab was decapitated on the ride. What went wrong to cause such a horrific tragedy?


Balloonfest
2017 · 7m
country: United States
Mid-Missouri cult hero Nathan Truesdell sifts through a Cleveland TV station's archives and unearths a fancy wrist watch, blistered fingers and other casualties of a misbegotten exercise in civic pride. In September 1986, the city of Cleveland attempted to set a special record: the simultaneous launch of 1.5 million balloons. But fate intervened, and the result was both crazier and more tragic than anyone could have imagined.