APRIL 2017

Deaf Jam
Director: Judy Lieff
Illuminating the extraordinary power of American Sign Language (ASL) poetry, Deaf Jam is story of Aneta Brodski’s bold journey into the spoken word slam scene. When Aneta, a deaf Israeli immigrant high school student, makes an extraordinary connection with a hearing Palestinian slam poet, they transcend personal and political divisions to generate a new form of poetry that speaks to both the hearing and the deaf.

Judy Lieff, Director
Judy Lieff is a filmmaker and educator with a background in dance and experimental film. She participated in the American Film Showcase 2013/2014 program with her first feature documentary, Deaf Jam, traveling to South Korea, Zimbabwe, and Turkey.  Judy won a finishing grant from ITVS for the film. She is on faculty at SUNY Purchase teaching film production that explores the intersections of film and dance. Judy earned her M.F.A. in dance & experimental film/video from the California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts), following a career as a professional dancer. Her credits include: a Dance On Camera residency with BBC producer Bob Lockyer at the Banff Centre for the Arts, a National Dance/Media fellowship from the Pew Charitable Trusts, and six grants for media projects with youth. Judy has years of experience working in production and post-production on commercials, industrials, shorts, and EPKs for feature films. Additionally, she has worked as a motion capture performer/choreographer, and as a stop-motion performer/choreographer on projects including Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Pat O’Neil’s The Decay of Fiction.