Three-time Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker, director, editor, story consultant, photographer with a passion for telling stories about real people, and real issues.
Deborah Dickson’s over thirty documentary films have premiered at Sundance, Berlin and many other film festivals and have been awarded Emmys, the DuPont-Columbia Award, the Peabody Award and Ace awards.
RUTHIE AND CONNIE: Every Room in the House premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2001 and won over 12 awards at festivals worldwide, including best documentary at the Seattle Film Festival and the Nashville Film Festival. It was broadcast on HBO/Cinemax.
FRANCES STELOFF: Memoirs of a Bookseller A portrait of the woman who founded the Gotham Book Mart, center for avant-garde literature since 1920 was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary short in 1988 after a successful festival run at the US festival, Berlin Film Festival, Festival di Popoli, Munich Film Festival. Edinburgh Film Festival, among others. later it was broadcast on WNET/PBS.
THE EDUCATION OF GORE VIDAL premiered at Sundance in 2002 and was broadcast as part of the award winning series, American Masters on PBS.
LALEE’S KIN: Legacy of Cotton (with Susan Froemke and Al Maysles) premiered at Sundance in 2000 and was nominated for an Academy Award and a Spirit Award and won an Alfred I. DuPont Award for Excellence in Journalism. It was broadcast on HBO.
She produced the acclaimed 10 part series CARRIER and directed the companion feature, ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE.
MONICA & DAVID Producer./Story Consultant. Director, Alexandra Codina
Award winning film explores the marriage of two adults with Down syndrome and the family who strives to support their needs. Emmy nomination 2011. HBO.
STORIES FROM THE LIGHTHOUSE a film about the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, through the remarkable stories of four young people growing up with visual impairment.
TRUE HEARTS, a film about romantic love, will be released in 2023.
In addition to producing, directing and story consulting, Dickson teaches directing at the School of Visual Arts Masters Program in Social Documentary.
“An Oscar-nominee in the documentary feature category this year, SUZANNE FARRELL: ELUSIVE MUSE is an extraordinarily insightful and touching souvenir of a career in thrall to a genius.”
- Allan Ulrich, S.F. EXAMINER DANCE CRITIC
Deborah Dickson understands story like not many filmmakers, She isn’t ruled by formulas or easy answers—“a story is like a puzzle and we have to find it” she told me once. Deborah was a story consultant on our first film STOLEN in 2008 and I basically learned to make films by editing with her.”
- Violeta Ayala,
“Two of the funniest and most outrageous queer activists you'll ever see. Whether they are in City Hall, on the shores of West Palm Beach, or dancing on the Coney Island boardwalk, they move, enlighten, and inspire.”
- Dennis Harvey, VARIETY on RUTHIE AND CONNIE: EVERY ROOM IN THE HOUSE
“WITNESSES TO A SECRET WAR is a powerful documentary about a relatively unknown piece of American history--a story of betrayal, survival and hope.”
- Clint Eastwood, actor/director
