Graduate Affiliate, CEMI
MFA Student, Radio-Television-Film
MJ is a multi-generational Deaf and queer filmmaker that graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2013 with a BFA in Film. She is currently in the Radio/Television/Film MFA Film Production program at the University of Texas in Austin. She worked with the award-winning Motion Light Lab housed at Gallaudet University as their production specialist, and is the Media Director for Copper & Water, where she collaborates on video projects for the Deaf community.
An avid cinematographer, she is licensed to film underwater with the PADI underwater videography certification. She also loves filming with 8, 16, and 35mm film.
She has directed and produced over 10 short films that have been submitted to various international film festivals. The Pastman, starring Sandra Mae Frank (New Amsterdam and Daybreak) and Russell Harvard (There Will Be Blood) was selected for 10 different film festivals, including “Other Worlds Austin,” and it won best Actress at the Shanghai International Deaf Film Festival and Clin d’Oeil Festival in France. Dimensions, a motion-capture short co-directed by MJ, was selected for 7 film festivals and won best 3D Animation at Clin d’Oeil.
MJ wants to share amazing stories from the Deaf community created by talented Deaf individuals with the rest of the world.