Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Debra Chasnoff is a
nationally recognized champion of using film as an organizing tool for
social justice campaigns, and a pioneering leader in the international
movement working to create safe and welcoming schools and communities.
Debra's highly acclaimed documentaries addressing youth and bias issues
are widely hailed by educators and advocates as among the best tools
available today to help open up dialogue and activism around many of
the most challenging issues affecting young people's lives and school
environments.
Her films include Straightlaced-How Gender's Got Us All Tied Up, about
the gender and sexuality pressures that teens and young adults face
today. Her other award-winning films, produced with Helen S. Cohen, include It's Elementary-Talking
About Gay Issues in School, Let's Get Real (about bias and bullying)
That's a Family! (supporting youth growing up in diverse family
structures) and the Academy Award-winning Deadly Deception-General
Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment. Her first film, Choosing
Children, explored the once unheard of idea that lesbians and gay men
could become parents after coming out.
In addition to dozens of film festival awards, Debra is the recipient
of the Wallace A. Gerbode Foundation Fellowship for outstanding
non-profit leadership, the Pathfinder Award from the Gay, Lesbian and
Straight Education Network, and the first-ever alumnae achievement
award in documentary filmmaking from Wellesley College. Debra has been
a featured speaker at dozens of colleges and conferences, and was
recently named a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. She is the founder of
GroundSpark and co-creator of our renowned Respect For All Project. She
has served the organization in a directing capacity since 1982.
