Debra Tolchinsky

Debra Tolchinsky is a filmmaker, an associate chair and associate professor of radio, TV, and film at Northwestern University, and founding director of Northwestern University's MFA program in documentary media. Tolchinsky is most known for her true-crime documentary short published by The New York Times that explores the story of Penny Beerntsen and Steven Avery, which is at the center of Netflix's series Making A Murderer.

Debra Tolchinsky
NationalityAmerican
OccupationFilmmaker, Associate Professor
Websitewww.crossxproductions.com

Early life and education

Tolchinsky grew up in Los Angeles, California. She earned a BA and MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago.[1][2]

Career

Tolchinsky is the founding director of Northwestern University’s MFA program in documentary media and is the associate chair and associate professor of radio, TV, and film.[3] She co-founded the Chicago chapter of Film Fatales, an organization that supports women directors based in Chicago.[4] She has shown her films at the Sundance Film Festival, the John F. Kennedy Center, the Gene Siskel Film Center, and the Supreme Court Institute.[3]

Films
Year Title Role
1988 Saint Catherine's Wedding Ring co-producer, director
2002 Lucky producer, director
2002 Dolly producer, director
2011 Fast Talk producer, director, cinematographer
2019 Contaminated Memories producer, director

Contaminated Memories

Tolchinsky's most widely-known work is true-crime documentary Contaminated Memories, published by The New York Times.[5] The 13-minute film follows Penny Beerntsen, who returns to where her assault took place and recounts the attack that led her to mistakenly identify Steven Avery as the perpetrator. Beerntsen and Avery's story is documented in Netflix's series Making A Murderer.[6][7][8] Tolchinsky worked closely with Beerntsen in the making of the film to share her story.[6] The film primarily explores memory contamination, or the ability for a memory to be corrupted by external factors so that facts are difficult to parse out. The film cites cognitive scientists like Elizabeth Loftus.[5]

Awards

Tolchinsky's film, Fast Talk, which she directed and produced, won Best Documentary at the LA Femme International Film Festival and Best Documentary Feature at the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival.[3][2]

References
  1. Eldeib, Dua (February 27, 2015). "Northwestern professor has Spock collection that's out of this world". Chicago Tribune.
  2. Jones, J.R. (September 15, 2011). "Debra Tolchinsky's fast talk". Chicago Reader.
  3. Karter, Erin (June 26, 2019). "Film about false memory in Steven Avery's wrongful conviction featured by NYT's Op-Docs". Northwestern Now.
  4. Pride, Ray (September 28, 2017). "Film 50 2017: Chicago's Screen Gems". New City Film.
  5. Turner, Laura Jane (July 7, 2019). "An important Making a Murderer detail is revisited in a new documentary". Digital Spy.
  6. "Woman who falsely accused Avery in rape case talks memory in new doc". WBay. June 28, 2019.
  7. Novak, Kim (July 8, 2019). "Woman recalls falsely identifying Making A Murderer's Steven Avery as her rapist in shocking new documentary". Metro UK.
  8. Mattew, Avila (July 15, 2019). "'Making A Murderer's' Steven Avery Falsely Identified As The Rapist In A New Documentary". Latin Times.
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