[1] Christof began his production career while an undergraduate at Connecticut College, where he produced his first documentary, "Left Behind," about AIDS orphans in Kenya.
He trekked in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo to cover the exploitation of child gold miners, made the treacherous journey through the desert to cross the Mexico/US border with migrants trying to reach American soil, and camped on the southern shores of Yemen, where he discovered the bodies of more than two-dozen refugees who drowned attempting to escape the violence in Somalia.
He was nominated for his third Emmy for "Lost in Democracy," a documentary about the first democratic elections held in the tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.
In 2012, "Sex, Lies, and Cigarettes," a documentary centered around Aldi, "the Indonesian smoking baby," went viral after exposing Philip Morris's marketing practices in the developing world.
[3] When Current TV was sold to Al Jazeera Media in 2013, Putzel became a senior correspondent for the network's flagship news magazine, America Tonight.