Born 1977, she studied textile art at Burg Giebichenstein, University of Arts and Design,
Halle & Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design. She has just finished
her third animation project Iktamuli, a short film about being a mother of a so-called
mentally disabled son.
Katie Turinski is a commercial editor and filmmaker based in New York City. She directed/edited the documentary feature, “Sissyboy”, which premiered at SXSW and won a Best Documentary Special Jury Award at the Salem Film Festival. Turinski is a featured editor on Free The Bid, and has been a Contributing Editor for the Sundance Institute Documentary Edit and Story Lab. Her passion for arts mentorship has led her to work as a filmmaking instructor at Camp Caldera, an arts-based summer camp for at-risk youth, as well as a mentor for AICE’s PrePro mentorship program in New York City.
Filmmaker and educator based in Philadelphia, PA. His most recent feature documentary, IN COUNTRY, had its world premiere at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and international premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto. The film was supported by the Sundance Documentary Film Program, IFP and numerous Seattle arts foundations. Since the premiere IN COUNTRY received extensive press including an NYTimes Op-Doc and articles in Salon and the Atlantic. (see Updates/Press for more info.)
His previous film, Famous 4A was nominated for the International Documentary Association’s David Wolper Award and won CILECT’s Documentary Film Prize. He is a 2014 Sundance Documentary Film Program Fellow and was named as one of The Independent’s “10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2014”.
Michael is currently an assistant professor at the University of the Arts and program director of the Film + Video department. Learn more here.
Maxx is an Australian cinematographer who has shot many different projects
over the years. After meeting Paul on the set of a TV series, they thought it would
be fun to make a short film about his life. Tragically Deaf is Maxx’s first foray into
Directing.
Mat Fraser is an Internationally renowned disabled actor & writer. Known for screen work, including the BBC/HBO series “His Dark Materials”, US TV comedy “Loudermilk”, and “American Horror Story: Freak Show”, in 2020 he curated a series of 6 Monologues around Disability for the BBC & BBC America, also writing & acting one of the pieces. Mat’s writing has been widely recognized and awarded. His museum show “Cabinet of Curiosities: How Disability Was Kept in a Box” won the UK’s Observer Ethical Award for Arts &Entertainment 2014.
www.matfraser.co.uk, Instagram: @mflidfraser, Twitter: @mat_fraser
Based in Los Angeles and raised in New York City, Doug is an independent filmmaker who has a passion for telling stories about individuals and communities overlooked and underrepresented. Doug’s collaboration with the Helen Keller National Center on Feeling Through marks the first time ever a DeafBlind actor has starred in a film and has been on a national tour of fully accessible screenings for moviegoers of any vision and/or hearing loss. His short film Jada played in over 2 dozen festivals around the world before becoming a viral sensation with nearly 19 million views on YouTube, garnering thousands of comments and emails from viewers around the world deeply moved and inspired by it.
Zachary Robin Gottsagen, “Zack,” made his first debut as the star of a natural childbirth instructional film on April 22, 1985, and has been an enthusiastic performer since his first role as a frog at age three. He attended Bak Middle School of the Arts, and graduated from Dreyfoos School of the Arts, as a theatre major in 2004. Zack attended Palm Beach State College.
Zack often played the villain role, with his most outstanding performance in “Bulletproof” in 2012. During the filming of “Bulletproof”, a documentary was made titled, “Becoming Bulletproof,” (2014) which went behind the scenes to follow Zack and other actors with different disabilities through their daily lives.
In 2017, Zack began filming his first feature length movie, “The Peanut Butter Falcon,” where he has the leading role along side his co-stars, Shia LaBeouf, Dakota Johnson, and Bruce Dern.
Zack has won many awards, including the Quincy Jones Exceptional Advocate Award from Global Down Syndrome Foundation; Outstanding Breakout Performance from Crested Butte Film Festival; the Rising Star Award from Palm Springs International Film Festival; Newcomer Award from the Hollywood Critics Association; Distinguished Alumni Award from the Palm Beach County Education Foundation; the Ed Roberts Award from the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley; Honorary Champion of Inclusion from Best Buddies; and the Breakthrough Entertainer Award from the Associated Press. Zack presented the Media Access Award in 2019 to the producers of “The Peanut Butter Falcon”. He also presented an Oscar at the 2020 Academy Awards.
Co-Producer, Programming & Production at POV.
