Lou Angeli (born August 11, 1951, Wilmington, Delaware) is an American writer and film maker.
Delaware based multi-media producer Lou Angeli has been involved in filmmaking and television production most of his life. Angeli is also a firefighter, EMT and firefighter instructor whose primary area of expertise is firefighter safety. In 1989, he combined both vocations to specialize in film production and television programming dealing with the emergency services.
Angeli's work has been seen on broadcast programs like ABC's 20/20, Dateline: NBC, Rescue/911, Inferno, and Real-TV. Earlier in his television career, he served as a studio director for Philadelphia's PBS station, a remote director for ESPN, and a documentary cameraman for CNN. As a videojournalist, Angeli has documented two wars and dozens of disasters, including the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11/01.
As a videographer, Angeli's most notable work is documenting fire-rescue incidents from the first responder's point-of-view. Riding along with fire departments in the USA, Canada, Italy and Sweden, Angeli follows firefighters inside burning buildings to offer the viewer a unique perspective on life as a firefighter.
On September 11, 2007, he announced start up of production on a new documentary dealing with illness and death among 9/11's emergency responders. In a press interview he noted that "70,000 emergency personnel and support volunteers responded to New York's call for help." He continued, "According to The World Trade Center Medical Monitoring Program [1], fully 70% of these men and women are ill...the effects of having worked at Ground Zero." Angeli cites estimates that by the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center disaster, 7,000 emergency personnel will have died of illness contracted at Ground Zero.
Angeli remains active as a disaster responder serving on the Community Emergency Response Team (New Castle County, DE) and the Medical Reserve Corps [2], two disaster response programs borne of the ashes of the World Trade Center.
Lou Angeli got started in the film industry as a dolly grip on the Academy Award-winning film Rocky in 1976. As a Director of Photography, Angeli lensed the CBS documentary, "Plan To Get Out Alive!", which earned the production team an Emmy Award. His directorial debut was the 1997 reality series Beyond The Yellow Tape. Later that year, he directed and photographed the documentary When Sparks Fly. In 2005, Angeli was behind the camera directing the thriller Keson.
Angeli's most popular work is the 2005 documentary Answering the Call: Ground Zero's Volunteers. Narrated by Kathleen Turner, the film pays tribute to all of the volunteers who descended upon New York City's Ground Zero after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
Answering The Call: Ground Zero's Volunteers was officially released on September 9, 2006 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the tragedy. The film was broadcast in China, Spain, Portugal, Poland, France and the UK. The film was also released as a DVD, Streaming Internet Video and Video On Demand in the United States.
Angeli and Turner each had a personal connection to the film, as they both volunteered at Ground Zero after the attacks.