FESTIVALS & AWARDS

Collage of numerous film festival award laurels and banners, including titles such as 'Winner,' 'Official Selection,' and various film festival names and years from 2022 to 2024, displayed in white against a black background.
Being Michelle documentary film is accessible  to allow access to information for people with visual or hearing disabilities. Here is Being Michelle 's accessible logo image.

AN AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY WITH GLOBAL REACH

BEING MICHELLE has received international recognition through film festival selections, documentary awards, and screenings that bring conversations about Deaf rights, disability justice, and communication access to audiences around the world.

INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL SELECTIONS

  • Poster for the 2024 We Can Fest, featuring a person with short reddish-brown hair and glasses holding a drawing of themselves in front of their face. The background is light blue, and text indicates the event takes place from November 15 to 22 in Bogotá D.C., Colombia.

    We Cam Fest, Bogotá D.C., Colombia

  • Poster for the documentary 'Being Michelle,' showing a smiling woman with red hair and glasses standing outdoors at sunset, with an award emblem and a bronze figurine in the foreground. The poster highlights winning Best Documentary at the 2024 Festival Clin D'Oeil.

    Festival Clin D'Oeil, Reims, France

  • Glass award with blue and black swirled interior, engraved with 'Best Documentary Feature Being Michelle Atin Mehra 2024', for the SignLight International Film Festival 2024, with a blurred background and the website www.beingmichelle.com at the bottom.

    SignLight International Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA

  • Poster for the 28th Resistance Film and Debate Festival in Foix, from July 5 to 13, 2024, featuring a photo of Atin Mehra and mentioning a debate with Caroline Murgues at 4 pm.

    Resistance5, Toulouse, France

  • Event poster for the 6th Annual ReelAbilities Film Festival in Los Angeles. Features a person holding a drawing or photo of themselves, key details about the screening event on May 4th from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, at California Plaza, with a purple background and yellow and white text.

    ReelAbilities Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA

  • [Image Description: A white woman with short brown hair, wearing glasses and a burgundy-colored top, stands in front of a green background, holding a painting of herself that partially covers her face. Film title Being Michelle is printed across the

    Inclús, Barcelona International Disability Film Festival

  • Poster for the film 'Being Michelle' featuring a woman with short brown hair and glasses. The poster shows awards won by the film, including the 2023 IDYLLWLD International Festival of Cinema winner, Golden Era Humanitarian Film Award, and Vanguard Award for Cinematic Achievement in Director and Documentary Feature.

    Idyllwild International of Cinema

  • [Image Description: A photo of a white woman with short brown hair, wearing glasses and a blue-colored top, sits in the middle of a drawing with images of a skyscraper on the left, an encircled eye, an encircled image of a person’s ear at the top,

    ReelAbilities Film Festival, Mexico City, Mexico

  • Poster for the film 'Being Michelle,' directed by Atin Mehra, showing a woman with short red hair and glasses, with text indicating it won the Impact Award at the 2023 International Film Festival, organized by IFAFF.

    (In) Justice for all Film Festival International

  • A woman with short red hair and glasses, wearing a blue shirt, is shown outdoors with a blurred background. The image features a green laurel wreath and text indicating it is a 2023 winner for Best Documentary Feature at the Nevada City Film Festival.

    Nevada City Film Festival, CA

  • Promotional poster for the ReelAbilities Film Festival Toronto, celebrating disability and Deaf cultures through film, taking place from May 11 to May 19. The poster features vibrant, colorful abstract artwork with floral designs and a large orange circle in the center that contains the festival's name.

    ReelAbilities Film Festival, Toronto, Canada

  • Person wearing a white T-shirt with a colorful design of multiple hands in different colors forming a circle, each hand in a different gesture, with a small illustration of two fists at the bottom.

    Maine Deaf Film Festival, Maine

  • A woman with short brown hair and glasses standing in front of a wall of colorful artwork at the Heartland International Film Festival.

    Heartland International Film Festival

  • Group of six people standing in front of a ReelAbilities Film Festival backdrop, smiling for the camera.

    ReelAbilities Film Festival, New York City

  • An indoor theater with a stage and a large screen showing a man's face. Six people are sitting on the stage, and one person is standing and speaking to the audience. Several audience members are seated watching the presentation.

    BraveMaker Film Festival, CA

  • Close-up of a woman with short red hair and glasses, wearing a blue shirt, at the Florida Film Festival 2022, with the event's logo and the title 'being michelle' at the bottom.

    Florida Film Festival

  • A woman with red hair and glasses holding a drawing of herself in front of her face. The background shows trees and an outdoor setting. Text on the image indicates it is an award for best feature documentary at the Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival in 2022.

    Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival

  • Group of ten people, including adults and a young girl, standing together indoors at an event, holding a poster that reads 'being michelle,' with a stylized photo of a woman holding a card with a similar image. The background features a blue banner with a film camera graphic and decorative patterns.

    Cleveland International Film Festival

  • Two women standing side by side, smiling, with a large screen in the background. The woman on the left has long brown hair, wears a black knit hat and a black puffy jacket. The woman on the right has short reddish hair, glasses, and wears a black shawl over a rust-colored top. They are holding a colorful, hand-painted sign featuring a yellow desert landscape, a dark figure of an animal, some text, and whimsical objects.

    Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

Screening Request form

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS & AUDIENCE CONVERSATIONS

Explore moments from BEING MICHELLE film festival screenings, filmmaker Q&As, and audience discussions celebrating accessible storytelling and advancing conversations about Deaf rights, disability justice, and communication access.

BEING MICHELLE at ReelAbilities Film Festival: New York Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan | Film Screening & Panel Discussion

WATCH THE PANEL DISCUSSION

PAST FESTIVAL SCREENINGS:

  • Being Michelle's World Premiere and Atin Mehra's Directorial Debut occured at the 19th annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in beautiful downtown Missoula, Montana, a 10-day exhibition of extraordinary nonfiction films from around the world! Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is the only film festival in the American West dedicated solely to documentary filmmaking.

  • #BeingMichelle Cleveland International Film Festival

    While at CIFF RespectAbility hosted a panel discussion which aimed to discuss in more depth some of the issues facing Deaf/disabled people in the criminal justice system as experienced by the protagonist in the feature length documentary film, Being Michelle. The panel brought together Deaf leaders and advocates as well as individuals who have experienced human rights abuses in the criminal justice system.Being Michelle: Exploring Criminal Justice and Trauma through a Deaf Lens

  • We won the Audience Award!!

    Thank you Florida Film Festival and all the audience members who helped vote #BeingMichelle in! We are so honored!

    #Onward #Documentary #Film #DeafAwareness #DeafArtist #CriminalJusticeReform #WhyISign #ASL #DeafCommunity

  • Being Michelle won Best Of Festival!!

    Being Michelle won Best Feature Documentary!!

    Thank you to the team at Maine Deaf Film Festival!!

  • While at BraveMaker Film Festival Michelle had her first ever art show and sold all 13 paintings! She also had the opportunity to learn about programs and resources for Deaf+ individuals in the Bay Area.

  • Being Michelle won First Prize for Best Feature Documentary!!

    Thank you to the team at Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival!!

  • Item description

  • Item description

  • Being Michelle won Grand Jury Award Feature Doc!!

    Thank you to the @awarenessfest jury for recognizing this powerful and important story! This award goes to Michelle and to the amazing team behind this film! #RightToCommunication #LoveAbounds

  • What an amazing weekend Ojai Film Festival ! Thank you to the audience members who joined us, thank you to Rorri Burton for traveling to Ojai to interpret for the event and thank you to the festival and jurors for recognizing this important film! #RightToCommunication #SocialImpact #DocumentaryFilm #BestDocumentaryFeature #BeingMichelle

  • Being Michelle won Honorable Feature Film award!!
    Thank you for the honor of this award Rocky Mountain Deaf Film Festival🤟🙏🏽. And congrats to all of the other filmmakers 🤩

  • The team at Rocky Mountain Women's Film does such an amazing job gathering community. Screening our film here has been such an incredible experience. 🙏🏽🤟 #RightToCommunication

  • Being Michelle is thrilled to screen at the Trauma Research Foundation’s 3rd Annual Film Festival! Watch for updates on the virtual Q&A to follow the screening!!

  • Being Michelle will screen Cinema On The Bayou Film Festival on Saturday January 28th at 2:45pm.

  • Last night was truly a special evening at @commongoodfilmfestival 😍🤟!! One year ago today #BeingMichelle had its World Premiere @bigskydocfest ! Last night we were missing many members of our team but we made many new friends and got to give @plaidervoteur a hug in person! Thank you to everyone who joined us. We are #StrongerTogether and every human being has the #RightToCommunication 🤟 @meikennedy @iamharoldfoxx @kelgunny @blackterplifetruebiz @atinmehra @maemehra

  • What an amazing festival! Thank you @sedonafilmfestival !! #BeingMichelle will screen again tomorrow February 22nd at 7pm!! Thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday. We loved seeing you!! #RightToCommunication

  • The Being Michelle team is honored to have received three awards Winner Golden Era Humanitarian Film Award, Vanguard Award for Cinematic Achievement Director Documentary Feature, Vanguard Award for Cinematic Achievement Documentary Feature, @idyllwildcinemafest 2023

  • Thank you to everyone who came out and joined us last night @reelabilitiesny @mm_jccmanhattan . We were thrilled to share this conversation with civil rights attorney Marc Fleidner @disabilityrightsny . Looking forward to the next screening today at 3:30pm @manhattanedu ! #RightToCommunication

  • Being Michelle wins Best Documentary Feature at Nevada City Film Festival !!! Thank you to the judges, the entire festival team and everyone who came out to see the film, especially our friends at FREED Center for Independent Living and California College of Ayurveda!!! Thank you to the amazing team at The Onyx Theatre, Nevada City for making the screenings accessible! Sign up for the newsletter and join the movement!

  • TONIGHT is the opening night of ReelAbilities Film Festival: Cleveland and Akron at 6 PM at Akron-Summit County Public Library. Come enjoy the film “Being Michelle.”

    ReelAbilities is a film festival that promotes awareness of the lives, stories, and artistic expressions of people with different disabilities.

    Learn more at reelabilities.org/cleveland/events.

    #ReelAbilities #FilmFestival #Akron

    Image description: A short-haired redhead woman wearing glasses while holding a painting while a sheriff's car drives behind on the road.

  • Being Michelle is honored to have screened at the 8th Annual (In)Justice For All Film Festival and to have received the Impact Award! Thank you to the judges, the festival programmers and audience members who recognize the importance of Michelle’s powerful story as we all work together to ensure the basic human #RightToCommunication for Deaf and Disabled people in the criminal justice system 🤟

    This year the judges were compelled to give an award to the film Being Michelle in this category.

  • BEING MICHELLE is thrilled to screen @nhdocs in New Haven, CT on October 21st, 6pm at St. Paul & St. James Episcopal Church. 57 Olive Street New Haven, CT.

    A post-screening panel discussion of the film will include BEING MICHELLE Advisor Dr. Gabriel Lomas @gabelomas , BEING MICHELLE Executive Producer Delbert Whetter @delwhetter , President of the Connecticut Association of the Deaf and Disability Rights Connecticut Board Member Luisa Gasco-Soboleski, & Director of the Department of Services for Persons with Disabilities in New Haven, CT, Gretchen Knauff. @disabilityrightsconnecticut @deafcad

    The screening will have Open Captions, the venue has wheelchair accessibility, and 2 ASL Interpreters will provide interpretation for the panel discussion.

    http://bit.ly/NHDocsBeingMichelle

    #BeingMichelle #RightToCommunication #DisabilityJustice #DeafInPrison

    [Image description: The New Haven Documentary Film Festival, October 12-22, 2023, reality at 24 frames per second. Logo includes a black and white film camera. The Being Michelle image is of a white woman with red hair and glasses holding a self-portrait of a young girl in a pink shirt bordered by a blue background. She is standing on a rural road while a police car drives behind in the background with sun coming in through the forest trees along the road behind her. NH Docs 2023 Official Selection Laurel overlays the image. Photos of the four panelists are shown and the event details listed above are written over a blue background.]

Audience Award: Best Documentary Feature 2022 (Copy)

Audience Award: Best Documentary Feature 2022

Being Michelle Audience Award Florida Film Festival 2022 (Copy)

Being Michelle Audience Award Florida Film Festival 2022

Group Photo at Florida Film Festival (Copy)

Group Photo at Florida Film Festival

Cleveland Film Festival 2022 (Copy)

Cleveland Film Festival 2022

People standing on stage during a panel at the Cleveland International Film Festival, with a large screen behind them displaying the festival's logo and name.

People standing on stage during a panel at the Cleveland International Film Festival, with a large screen behind them displaying the festival's logo and name.

People in a large, dimly lit auditorium with red velvet chairs, some standing and talking, others seated, and a few in the background.

People in a large, dimly lit auditorium with red velvet chairs, some standing and talking, others seated, and a few in the background.

A group of nine people on stage at the Cleveland International Film Festival, some with their hands raised, some holding a microphone, standing in front of a large screen with festival branding.

A group of nine people on stage at the Cleveland International Film Festival, some with their hands raised, some holding a microphone, standing in front of a large screen with festival branding.

People conversing at the Cleveland International Film Festival, with a backdrop displaying the event's branding and dates.

People conversing at the Cleveland International Film Festival, with a backdrop displaying the event's branding and dates.

People standing in a line at a venue with ornate decor, listening to a woman in a red shirt talking to a man in a black jacket.

People standing in a line at a venue with ornate decor, listening to a woman in a red shirt talking to a man in a black jacket.

Group of people posing in front of a backdrop at a film festival, with a young girl holding a sign that says "being michelle."

Group of people posing in front of a backdrop at a film festival, with a young girl holding a sign that says "being michelle."

World Premiere at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival! (Copy)

World Premiere at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival!

A person holding multiple pamphlets of the book "Being Michelle" by Michelle A. Mather, featuring a photo of Michelle with red hair and glasses, holding a drawing of herself, with a rural landscape background.

A person holding multiple pamphlets of the book "Being Michelle" by Michelle A. Mather, featuring a photo of Michelle with red hair and glasses, holding a drawing of herself, with a rural landscape background.

Two women speaking on stage at the Montana Women's International Film Festival, with a large screen behind them displaying event information and dates, March 18-27, 2022.

Two women speaking on stage at the Montana Women's International Film Festival, with a large screen behind them displaying event information and dates, March 18-27, 2022.

Three people on stage at a presentation, wearing masks. The person on the left, in a red shirt, holding a microphone, appears to be speaking. The two women on the right are listening, one with curly hair and glasses, the other with long hair and a co

Three people on stage at a presentation, wearing masks. The person on the left, in a red shirt, holding a microphone, appears to be speaking. The two women on the right are listening, one with curly hair and glasses, the other with long hair and a colorful scarf, both with crossed arms.

Group of eleven diverse people standing on stage in front of a large screen at a conference, smiling for a photo.

Group of eleven diverse people standing on stage in front of a large screen at a conference, smiling for a photo.

A group of four people standing outside, engaged in conversation. One person, with red hair and glasses, is wearing a black face mask and a black jacket. The others are partially visible, two of whom are looking at their phones. It is nighttime and t

A group of four people standing outside, engaged in conversation. One person, with red hair and glasses, is wearing a black face mask and a black jacket. The others are partially visible, two of whom are looking at their phones. It is nighttime and the background features posters and posters with the text "Upcoming Events" on a door or window.

A group of four diverse people, including a young girl, standing together outside a theater, smiling for a photo. The background shows a marquee with a large letter 'W' and people waiting in line.

A group of four diverse people, including a young girl, standing together outside a theater, smiling for a photo. The background shows a marquee with a large letter 'W' and people waiting in line.

Two women smiling and standing together outside a building at night, one wearing glasses and a black puffy jacket, the other with curly hair and a dark scarf, in a lively urban setting with lit signage and pedestrians in the background.

Two women smiling and standing together outside a building at night, one wearing glasses and a black puffy jacket, the other with curly hair and a dark scarf, in a lively urban setting with lit signage and pedestrians in the background.

Three people standing together indoors, one woman on the left with glasses and a colorful dress, the man in the middle with glasses holding a painting of a yellow landscape and animal, and a man on the right wearing a gray beanie and dark jacket. The

Three people standing together indoors, one woman on the left with glasses and a colorful dress, the man in the middle with glasses holding a painting of a yellow landscape and animal, and a man on the right wearing a gray beanie and dark jacket. The background shows a staircase and dim lighting.

Group of people wearing masks examining items on a table at an indoor event, with a reception desk and clothing rack in the background.

Group of people wearing masks examining items on a table at an indoor event, with a reception desk and clothing rack in the background.

Group of people standing in front of a poster on an easel outside a theater entrance. The poster features a woman holding a card with a cartoon of herself and the words 'being michelle.' The group consists of seven women and one man, with some childr

Group of people standing in front of a poster on an easel outside a theater entrance. The poster features a woman holding a card with a cartoon of herself and the words 'being michelle.' The group consists of seven women and one man, with some children kneeling in front. The background includes theater doors and a ticket booth, with warm lighting and a marquee with a red 'W' sign.

A group of twelve people standing together outside a theater, smiling for a photo. Behind them is a poster for a show titled 'being michelle'. There are lights and ticket booths visible in the background.

A group of twelve people standing together outside a theater, smiling for a photo. Behind them is a poster for a show titled 'being michelle'. There are lights and ticket booths visible in the background.

Two women standing on stage holding a colorful sign with a mountain, desert, and a bear silhouette, smiling at the camera.

Two women standing on stage holding a colorful sign with a mountain, desert, and a bear silhouette, smiling at the camera.

A group of seven people standing on a stage at the Cleveland International Film Festival. One woman is speaking into a microphone, while the others listen. The background features a large projection screen with the festival's logo and decorative grap

A group of seven people standing on a stage at the Cleveland International Film Festival. One woman is speaking into a microphone, while the others listen. The background features a large projection screen with the festival's logo and decorative graphics.

Seven people standing on stage at Cleveland International Film Festival, engaging in a panel discussion or presentation, with a large screen behind them displaying the festival's logo.

Seven people standing on stage at Cleveland International Film Festival, engaging in a panel discussion or presentation, with a large screen behind them displaying the festival's logo.

Florida Film Festival Audience Award: Best Documentary Feature 2022 (Copy)

Florida Film Festival Audience Award: Best Documentary Feature 2022

Three people standing together in front of a blue backdrop, smiling and making hand signs, with one holding a book. The person in the middle wears a red and pink patterned top with a green lanyard and badge. The woman on the right wears glasses and a

Three people standing together in front of a blue backdrop, smiling and making hand signs, with one holding a book. The person in the middle wears a red and pink patterned top with a green lanyard and badge. The woman on the right wears glasses and a light pink jacket, and the man on the left wears glasses and a gray zip-up jacket.