PBS American Masters Short Film Highlights Deafblind fencer, hiker, and Award Winner author 'Elsa Sjunneson'

 PBS American Masters Short Film Highlights Deafblind fencer, hiker, and

Award Winner author 'Elsa Sjunneson'

Directed by Cameron S. Mitchell ("Disposable Humanity") and Produced by his company CSM

Productions with Julia Muniz (“Cherry Lemonade”)

Public Broadcasting Service American Masters' new live-action short film Elsa Sjunneson is an

extended look at some of the themes explored in American Master - Becoming Helen Keller and

hopes to provide an accurate and updated representation of modern DeafBlind role models who

navigate the world today.

"I hope this documentary can change perceptions on Deafblindness and help others feel

empowered. I also hope it shows how we can feature disabled individuals without fetishizing

them or instrumentalizing them for able-bodied people in some way."- Cameron Mitchell,

Director

Elsa Sjunneson is a professor and media critic, a skilled fencer and hiker, and a published author,

winner of the Hugo Award and the Aurora Award. She has written for Marvel Comics' first

Women of Marvel and for the Magic the Gathering universe. Through her work as a disability

and queer rights activist, Elsa wants to change people's misconception of the DeafBlind

community and show them as loud, capable, strong people.

"It's important to me to work in the genre because I want there to be disabled people in the

future. I want us to imagine disabled people in the future. I want to be in the future." - Elsa

Sjunneson

Cameron S. Mitchell is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has been featured in major

publications, including Variety, Hollywood Reporter, and Rolling Stone. He makes an active

effort to contribute new content to the film industry that represents disability viewpoints,

including his narrative short The Co-Op (Premiered at Slamdance 2021, Winner: Bergen

International Film Festival) and his feature-length documentary Disposable Humanity (In

Production). Cameron is disabled and believes in disability representation in front of and behind

the camera. Julia Muniz is an award-winner Brazilian storyteller based in Los Angeles whose

work aims to inspire, empower, and raise awareness through JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and

Inclusion) storytelling in front of and behind the camera. Both Cameron and Julia are

programmers and jurors for Slamdance Unstoppable, a disability film category at Slamdance

Film Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Elsa Sjunneson American Masters documentary was produced with the support of PBS American Masters, now in its 36th season, and recently nominated for an IDA Award, two Primetime Emmy® Awards, and was awarded two News & Documentary Emmys. Through compelling, unvarnished stories, the series illuminates the lives and creative journeys of our nation's most enduring artistic giants—those who have left an indelible impression on our cultural landscape. Setting the standard for documentary film profiles, the series has earned widespread critical acclaim and 28 Emmy Awards—including 10 for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series and five for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special—14 Peabodys, three Grammys, two Producers Guild Awards, an Oscar, and many other honors. This version of the film contains Closed Captions (CC): . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxuxpCPG0-Q For the version of the film containing American Sign Language interpretation (ASL), Audio Description (AD), and Open Captions (OC), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxuxpCPG0-Q

Make sure to check out the monthly Nerdthusiast Movie Podcast. Recently our team interviewed the director of this project and sat him down to discuss plans for the future.,

Posted by: Anthony Cicali - Nerdthusiast Content Writer

Twitter @Eatahoagie