Irene Taylor Brodsky
Irene Taylor Brodsky (born June 15, 1970) is an American filmmaker best known for her documentaries that delve deep into the human experience. For her debut feature film, "Hear and Now", Brodsky won a Peabody Award and the 2007 Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her next film, "The Final Inch", which also garnered multiple Emmy Award nominations and the International Documentary Association's Pare Lorentz Award. Her short film, "One Last Hug", about a grief camp for children, won the 2014 Prime Time Emmy Award for Best  Children's Programming. Brodsky's other award winning films include "Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements" (2019), "Homeless: The Soundtrack" (2018), "Beware the Slenderman" (2017), "Open Your Eyes" (2015), and "Saving Pelican 895" (2012). Early life. Brodsky is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults). Brodsky graduated from New York University and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Career. Brodsky's early work was influenced by growing up in a deaf family. She began her career as a still photographer with the publication of her first book, "Buddhas in Disguise: Deaf People of Nepal", documenting the lives of disabled people  in the "Himalayas". For ten years, she worked between Kathmandu and New York City, became a Himalayan mountain guide and made her first film in 1995, on Nepalese deaf children, called "Ishara". Brodsky returned to the United States, soon working with Witness, a human rights video advocacy organization founded by Peter Gabriel. She began directing television documentaries, ranging from polygamist Alex Joseph and his 9 wives to the problematic rise of managed health care. From 1999 to 2002, she worked as a producer for "CBS News Sunday Morning" covering music, health care and breaking news. In 2002, Brodsky moved to  Portland, Oregon, and founded a documentary production company, Vermilion Films in 2006. Her first feature documentary, "Hear and Now", won the Audience Award at Sundance Film Festival in 2007 and a Peabody Award. Since then, she has won two Emmy Awards and been nominated for an Academy Award and multiple Emmy Awards. In 2019, Irene founded The Treehouse Project, a nonprofit forging broader accessibility to documentary film. Brodsky's documentaries have appeared on HBO, CBS, A&E, Fox, and the History Channel.