Skip to main content
Northwestern School of Communication

Debra Tolchinsky

(she/her)
Associate Professor
My in-process documentary, True Memories and Other Falsehoods, looks at false memory and false internalized belief within the criminal justice system. I am particularly interested in how the mind may become contaminated through the process of a criminal investigation. On a more meta-level, I am concerned with how documentary film can act as a contaminant.

Department

Radio/Television/Film

Area(s) of Expertise

Directing, Documentary, Media production, Memory
Debra Tolchinsky

Debra Tolchinsky is a documentary director/producer, a multimedia artist, a curator, and an associate professor at Northwestern University. Debra was the founding director of Northwestern's MFA in documentary media and recently served as the Department of Radio-TV-Film's associate chair. Debra received an AB from USC's School of Cinematic Arts and an MFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her films (Saint Catherine's Wedding Ring, Lucky, Dolly, Fast Talk) have been screened nationally and internationally at venues such as the Sundance Film Festival, The John F. Kennedy Center, The Chicago International Film Festival, FIPADOC, The Italy Innocence Project, and the Supreme Court Institute. In 2017, Debra garnered an Alice B. Kaplan Institute for the Humanities Fellowship; in 2018, she won a Kartemquin Partner Program Sage Fund grant. The New York Times recently released her short documentary, Contaminated Memories, via Op-Docs. Presently, Debra is working on a four-part episodic documentary, True Memories and Other Falsehoods, in association with Kartemquin Films.

Education

  • MFA Painting, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
  • BA Film/Video Production, USC School of Cinema-Television

Awards, Grants and Honors (Selected)

Currently Streaming: The New York Times Op-Docs
2022
  • True Memories and Other Falsehoods selected to be in association with Kartemquin Films, a multi-Academy Award nominated company
  • Provost Grant for Research in Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts,True Memories and Other Falsehoods
2021
  • The Italian Festival of Criminal Justice (previously featured Amanda Knox) in Modena, Italy. International screening and panel surrounding Contaminated Memories
  • Video Consortium Chicago Launch Event, invited for screening and talkback, Music Box Theater
2020
  • Nominee, Short Documentary Award, FIPA-Doc International Documentaire, Biarritz, France
  • Invited Speaker, Claremont-McKenna College Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum Speaker Series, True Memories and Other Falsehoods.
  • Free Food for Thought podcast interview regarding True Memories and Other Falsehoods
2019
  • Selected, Northwestern University Van Zelst Research Professor in Communication
  • Included on New City’s Film 50 2019 Chicago’s Screen Gems
  • Chosen, New York Times Op-Docs, Contaminated Memories (film)
  • Published, New York Times Opinion Piece, “Contaminated Memories” (article)
  • Nominee, Gold Hugo for Best Documentary Short, Chicago International Film Festival, for Contaminated Memories
  • Screening and panel surrounding Contaminated Memories at the University of Rome III in conjunction with the Italy Innocence Project
  • Guest on WGN Radio/discussing Contaminated Memories
2018
  • Recipient, Kartemquin Partner Program Sage Fund Grant for True Memories and Other Falsehoods (in-process)
  • True Memories and Other Falsehoods selected by Kartemquin Films to be one of a handful of films the Academy Award nominated company has in development
  • Finalist, From The Heart Productions’ Roy W. Dean Grant, for True Memories and Other Falsehoods
2017
  • Invited speaker at Chicago Humanities Festival/17: Belief regarding True Memories and Other Falsehoods. In conversation with WBEZ Film commentator, Milos Stehlik
  • No. 7 on New City’s Film 50 2017 Chicago’s Screen Gems
  • Awarded a year-long 2017-2018, Alice Kaplan Fellowship for The Humanities for, True Memories and Other Falsehoods
  • Invited Speaker, Prague Film School, Prague, Czech Republic

Courses

  • RTVF 377--Topics in Non-fiction Media: The Crime-Centered Documentary/HUM 370--Special Topics in the Humanities/LEGAL_ST 376--Topics in Legal Studies
  • RTVF 392--Documentary Production
  • RTVF 464--Advanced Media Writing: Wrtg & Directing Mental Health
  • RTVF 479--Seminar: Studies in Film and Video Prod: Wrtg & Directing Mental Health
  • RTVF 551--MFA in Documentary Media: Documentary Techniques
  • RTVF 553--MFA Documentary Pre-Thesis
  • RTVF 555--MFA Thesis 2
  • RTVF 556--MFA Thesis 3