Filmography

TRUE HEARTS (2023) Director/Editor/Producer.  Producer/Cinematographer Scott Anger.
Filmmaker Deborah Dickson goes on the road to explore the maddening complexities of romantic love by talking to friends, strangers and former lovers. Part essay, part memoir, TRUE HEARTS celebrates falling in love and tries to understand how to make it last.

STORIES FROM THE LIGHTHOUSE (2023) Director/Producer. Cinematographer Bob Richman. Additional photography Candace Barbot and Buddy Squires.
Documentary feature about The Miami Lighthouse for the Blind through the lives of three young people who are visually impaired-- two teenagers, and a young man who has just graduated from grad school and is living on his own with a new job.

FRANCES STELOFF: MEMOIRS OF A BOOKSELLER (1987) Producer/Director/Editor.
Portrait of the woman who founded the Gotham Book Mart, center for avant-garde literature since 1920. Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary short.  Sundance Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Festival di Popoli, Munich Film Festival.  Edinburgh Film Festival. WNET/PBS.

THE LOST BIRD PROJECT (2011) Director/Editor. Producer, Muffie Meyer. Cinematographer Scott Anger.
A film about sculptor Todd McGrain, who has made large bronze memorials to five North American birds driven to extinction and is negotiating to place them on the sites where the last birds were seen in the wild.  A film about art, extinction, loss and memory. FIFA. DocNYC, PBS.

WITNESSES TO A SECRET WAR  (2008) Producer/Director.  Co-producers, Scott Anger and Mary Robertson. Cinematographer Scott Anger. Editor, Sakae Ishikawa.
The story of the secret war in Laos told by the Hmong soldiers and their families who were recruited by the CIA to fight America’s proxy war in the 60’s and 70’s until the Communist takeover.  Thessaloniki Film Festival, Minneapolis Film Festival, Co-produced by ITVS and funded by CPB, Sundance Documentary Fund and Penguin Television. Global Voices, PBS

ART IN THE 21ST CENTURY: LOS ANGELES AND MEXICO CITY (2015-16) Director, Mexico City and L.A.
Season 8 of the well-known art series focuses on artists living and working in North American cities. PBS.

CANCER: EMPEROR OF ALL MALADIES (2015) Director. Episode 2. Editor Karen Sim. Field Producer Ali Sargent. Cinematographer, Bob Hanna.
Six part series based on Pulitzer prize winning book by Siddhartha Mukherjee.  Executive Producer, Ken Burns.  Series Producer, Barak Goodman. PBS.

ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE (2008) Producer/Director.  Editor, Sabine Krayenbuhl.
A documentary about love and war set on the USS Nimitz during a 6 month deployment to the Persian Gulf.  Icon Distribution.  PBS.

CARRIER (2008) Producer. Executive Producers, Mel Gibson, Bruce Davey, Nancy Cotton, Maro Chermayeff and Mitchell Block. Acclaimed 10 part series about life aboard the USS Nimitz on a 6 month deployment to the Persian Gulf.  PBS.

THE EDUCATION OF GORE VIDAL (2003) Director. Producer, Matt Kapp. Editor Sakae Ishikawa. Cinematographer Don Lenzer.
Portrait of America’s favorite literary and political provocateur. Premiere, Sundance Film Festival. American Masters, WNET/13.

RUTHIE AND CONNIE: EVERY ROOM IN THE HOUSE (2002) Director/Producer. Editor Rachel Kittner. Cinematographer Ferne Pearlstein.
Worlds are turned upside down in 1974 when two married women with children discover that their friendship has developed into a love affair.  Premiere, Berlin Film Festival. Winner, Best Documentary, Seattle International and Nashville. Audience awards at Miami Gay & Lesbian, Provincetown Int’l, Outfest (L.A.), New York Lesbian & Gay, Philadelphia G&L, Chicago G&L, Austin G&L, Toronto G&L. Opening night, San Francisco Jewish; Centerpiece film, Outfest (L.A.), New York L&G; Closing night, San Francisco G&L. HBO.

LALEE’S KIN: THE LEGACY OF COTTON (2001) Directed by Deborah Dickson and Susan Froemke with Albert Maysles.  Edited by Deborah Dickson.
In the Mississippi Delta, a family and a visionary school superintendent struggle to overcome the devastating legacy of poverty and illiteracy. Sundance Film Festival, winner for Best Cinematography.  Thessaloniki, Doubletake, Hot Docs, IDFA Amsterdam, Denver International. Nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. Nominated for an Academy Award 2002. Dupont award, 2004. HBO.

THE ART OF INFLUENCE (1998) Director. Additional directing by Roberto Guerra. Editor Michelle Harrison. Producer Margie Smilow.
Fourteen contemporary artists talk about the 20th century artist who most influenced them. An Alternate Current Production. Bravo, NHK, Irish Screen, Gaumont.

SUZANNE FARRELL: ELUSIVE MUSE (1996) Directed by Anne Belle and Deborah Dickson.  Edited by Deborah Dickson.  Feature length documentary portrait of Balanchine’s last great muse, ballerina Suzanne Farrell.  New York Film Festival Premiere. Academy Award nomination 1997. PBS.

LETTING GO: A HOSPICE JOURNEY (1996) Directed by Deborah Dickson and Susan Froemke with Albert Maysles.  Edited by Deborah Dickson. Feature length documentary about dying with the support of hospice care. ACE award, Directing. HBO.

SEX, TEENS AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS (1995) Co-Producer/Director. With Roger Weisberg.
Documentary film about teen pregnancy and the impact public schools can make through sex education and school-based clinics. PBS.

ACCENT ON THE OFFBEAT (1993) Directed by Deborah Dickson and  Susan Froemke with Albert Maysles.  Edited by Deborah Dickson. Peter Martins (choreographer) and Wynton Marsalis (composer) collaborate on Jazz: Six Syncopated Movements. A Peter Gelb Film for Sony Classical.  PBS.

ABORTION: DESPERATE CHOICES (1992) Directed by Deborah Dickson and  Susan Froemke with Albert Maysles.  Edited by Deborah Dickson. Emmy award-winning documentary film focuses on unplanned pregnancies and the painful decisions which surround them. Alfred Dupont Award.  Peabody Award. Ace Awards. HBO.

DANCING IN ONE WORLD (1992) Co-Director/Editor.
Final film in an eight part series about the power and meaning of dance. A PBS/BBC co-production.

UMBRELLAS (1991) Co-director/California. with Henry Corra and Maysles Films Inc.
Christo’s Joint project for California and Japan. Berlin Film Festival. ARTE.

CHRISTO IN PARIS (1990) A film by David and Albert Maysles, Deborah Dickson and Susan Froemke.
A film about the environmental artist, Christo, and his wife, Jeanne-Claude as they wrap the Pont Neuf bridge and reveal their love story. Grand Prize, Amsterdam Film Festival. Gold Hugo, Chicago Film Festival. Winner, Montreal Film Festival. Prize for Cinematography, Sundance Film Festival. Broadcast in Europe in 1995.

DANCING FOR MR. B (1989) Co-director/Editor  .Produced and directed by Anne Belle.
Feature documentary about six of Balanchine’s ballerinas spanning the choreographer’s American career. New York Film Festival premiere. Sundance Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Venice Film Festival. PBS.

KARAJAN IN SALZBURG (1988) A film by Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson and Peter Gelb.
Portrait of the maestro at work, featuring Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle. CAMI Video. PBS.  NHK. ZDF. BBC.

VLADIMIR HOROWITZ: THE LAST ROMANTIC (1985) A film by Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson, Albert Maysles and Pat Jaffe. Edited by Deborah Dickson and Pat Jaffe. Concert and conversation with legendary pianist. Emmy award. PBS and international broadcast.

OZAWA  (1985) A film by David and Albert Maysles, Susan Froemke and Deborah Dickson.
Documentary about the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. PBS, NHK.

COUNTRY DAYS (1974) Director/Editor.
A young woman spends the summer alone in a cabin in Vermont, re-imagining her life after the break up of her marriage. MoMA. Whitney. Festival du Jeune Cinema, France.

WATER’S DREAM (1975) Director/Editor.
Experimental short about water in a country stream.  MoMA. Whitney Museum, Movies in the Parks.

STILL NOT EQUAL (work in progress) Consulting Director.  Co-director/Cinematographer Tom Hurwitz. Producer Veronique Bernard. Executive Producer Susan Kahn.
A documentary feature about a remarkable school in the South Bronx, a visionary principal, and students becoming social justice warriors fighting to end segregation in the public school system.

Story Consultation

MONICA & DAVID (2010) Producer. 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.

WAR DON DON (2010) Story Consultant. Director, Rebecca Richman Cohen.
The trial of Issa Sesay for alleged war crimes in the “special court” of Sierra Leone. Emmy nomination 2011. HBO.

STOLEN (2009) Producer. Directors, Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw.
The filmmakers follow the story of a Saharawi refugee in North Africa only to discover a secret which spirals the film into the forbidden subject of slavery..

FAVELA RISING (2005) Story Consultant. Producer/ Directors, Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochary. Award-winning film documents a man and a movement, a city divided and a favela (Brazilian squatter settlement) united. The story of Anderson Sa. HBO.