Hazel Gurland-Pooler

Colombian-born and NYC-based, Hazel is a director/producer who uplifts the stories of women from underrepresented communities, overcoming intersectional discrimination historically and today. Hazel's current personal documentary, "Finding Luz" reveals the history of adoption between the U.S. and Colombia, and explores issues of identity, roots, and (be)longing. Hazel's first feature-length documentary, “Storming Caesars Palace,” supported by Firelight Media, enjoyed 75+ festival and community screenings nationally and internationally, and broadcast on PBS's Independent Lens in 2023. Recently, Hazel was a Story Producer for the 4-part series, “Fall of Diddy” on HBO/MAX, and an Impact Producer for the documentary short, "For the Love of Strippers" for Culture House Media. Previously, Hazel directed PBS’s celebrity genealogy series, “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.” and co-produced the 6-hour PBS series "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross” also with Gates, Jr., which was honored with an Emmy, a Peabody, a duPont-Columbia baton, and a NAACP Image award.

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ABOUT STORMING CAESARS PALACE

After losing her job as a hotel worker in Las Vegas, Ruby Duncan joined a welfare rights group of mothers who defied notions of the “welfare queen.” In a fight for guaranteed income, Ruby and other equality activists took on the Nevada mob in organizing a massive protest that shut down Caesars Palace.

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