Irene Taylor Brodsky filming Homeless The Soundtrack

Irene Taylor (born June 15, 1970) is a film director and producer.

Early life

Taylor was born on June 15, 1970, to deaf parents Sally and Paul Taylor. She graduated from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

's Graduate School of Journalism.

Career

Taylor began her documentary career in photojournalism. Her first feature documentary, ''Hear and Now'', a documentary memoir about her deaf parents, won the Audience Award at the

2007 Sundance Film Festival The 2007 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 18 until January 28, 2007, in Park City, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah and Ogden, Utah. It was the 23-rd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival. The opening night film was '' Chica ...

, a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

, and numerous awards at festivals around the world. It was also nominated by the

Producers Guild of America The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is a 501(c)(6) trade association representing the interests Television producer, television producers, Film producer, film producers and emerging media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership inclu ...

in 2008 for Documentary of the Year. Her

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

feature documentary ''

Beware the Slenderman ''Beware the Slenderman'' (stylized as ''_beware the slenderman'') is a 2016 American documentary film directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky about the Slender Man stabbing. It premiered at South by Southwest in March 2016 and was broadcast on HBO on ...

'' received two 2017 Critics' Choice Award nominations, for Best Director and Best Documentary, and was also nominated for a 2018 Emmy Award. Taylor's previous credits include several theatrically released short films, all which aired on HBO. ''The Final Inch'', about the global effort to eradicate polio, was nominated for an Academy award, multiple Emmys, and won the IDA's Pare Lorentz Award. After the 2010 Gulf oil spill, she followed the life of a single bird found coated in oil, and made ''Saving Pelican 895'' which won an Emmy for its affecting music. She directed ''One Last Hug: Three Days at Grief Camp'', which won the 2014 Prime Time Emmy for Best Children's Programming. In 2016 she released ''Open Your Eyes'', about an aging couple living in the Himalayas determined to regain their sight. Taylor's short opinion film ''Between Sound and Silence'' was released by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' Op-Docs. Taylor's early career began in Kathmandu, Nepal, working as a Himalayan Mountain guide and author. Her photography book, ''Buddhas in Disguise'', became the basis for her first documentary film, made in 1993 with the United Nations. She was a producer for CBS Sunday Morning, and founded her production company Vermilion Films in 2006. In 2019, Taylor made ''Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements'' about her deaf son, her deaf father and Beethoven, as he went deaf while writing his famous sonata. It premiered at the

2019 Sundance Film Festival The 2019 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 24 to February 3, 2019. The first lineup of competition films was announced on November 28, 2018. Films U.S. Dramatic Competition * '' Before You Know It'' by Hannah Pearl Utt * '' ...

, and was nominated for a 2020 PrimeTime Emmy Award for Special Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. That year, Taylor founded The Treehouse Project, a nonprofit forging broader accessibility to documentary film. Taylor's film ''Leave No Trace: A Hidden History of the Boy Scouts'' premiered at the 2022

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

, and won a 2022 Columbia-DuPont award. In 2021 it was announced that Taylor would be working with

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

on a documentary about the French-Canadian singer

Celine Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion (born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Power Ballads", Dion's powerful, technically skilled vocals and commercially successful works have had ...

. The film, '' I Am: Celine Dion'', was released on June 21, 2024. Taylor's documentaries have appeared on

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

, A&E,

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

, and the

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

Filmography

* 2007: ''

Hear and Now ''Hear and Now'' is a 2007 documentary film by Irene Taylor Brodsky, winning awards in 2007 at the Sundance Film Festival and the Heartland Film Festival; and garnering a Peabody Award in 2008. Plot The filmmaker's parents were both born deaf ...

'' * 2009: '' The Final Inch'' * 2011: ''Saving Pelican 895'' * 2014: ''One Last Hug: Three Days at Grief Camp'' * 2015: ''Open Your Eyes'' * 2016: ''

'' * 2017: ''The Life Story'' * 2018: ''The Listening Project'' * 2018: ''Homeless: The Soundtrack'' * 2018: ''Between Sound and Silence'' * 2019: ''Moonlight Sonata'' *2022: ''Leave No Trace: A Hidden History of the Boy Scouts'' *2023: ''Trees and Other Entanglements'' *2024: '' I Am: Celine Dion''

Awards and nominations

* 2004:

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

Award for an "Outstanding Feature in a Regularly Scheduled Broadcast", ''Heart of the Country'' * 2007:

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

Audience Award, ''

'' * 2008:

, ''

'' * 2009: Nominee for

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

, '' The Final Inch'' * 2016: Critics' Choice Documentary Awards: Nominee for Best Documentary Feature and for Best Direction of a Documentary Feature for ''

'' *2020: Nominee for Emmy in Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, ''Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements'' *2022: Columbia duPont Award for Excellence in Broadcast, Documentary and Online Journalism for ''Leave No Trace: A Hidden History of the Boy Scouts''

Select works

* 1997 – ''Buddhas in Disguise: Deaf People of Nepal?'' San Diego, California: DawnSignPress. ; ; the book's stories and photographs shed light on the Deaf culture and community in Nepal. * 1999 – ''I Witness: Polygamy.'' Amazon Prime Video. Main videographer and a producer of five 24-minute episodes on Alex Joseph's polygamist family just before Joseph died of liver cancer.

Notes

References

"Academy Award Recognition for India's Fight to Eradicate Polio,"

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

. February 18, 2009. * Deburge, Peter
"Sundance 2007: ''Hear and Now (Documentary),"
''Variety.'' January 20, 2007.

CNN-IBN CNN News18 is an Indian English-language news television channel founded by Raghav Bahl based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is currently co-owned by Network18 Group and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN provides international coverage for the c ...

(Cable News Network-Indian Broadcasting Network) February 3, 2009. * Pandey, Geeta
"Final Inch towards the Oscars,"

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

. February 19, 2009.

External links

*
Vermilion Films

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Irene American film producers Living people New York University alumni Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni American documentary filmmakers American women documentary filmmakers 1970 births 21st-century American women American women film directors