Indie Lens Pop-Up: Preview from The Tuba Thieves • The Little Theatre

Deaf since birth, Diana Pryntz grew up in New York City attending public schools. When she was of college age, she moved to Rochester, NY to attend Rochester Institute of Technology. It was there where she learned American Sign Language (ASL) and developed her Deaf identity. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Master of Science in Instructional Technology. After a short stint working in the industry as a programmer for Xerox and then DuPont, she became a professor of Computer Science at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. In 1987, she switched gears and changed her career to motherhood.
During her 30 years of motherhood when she wasn’t busy raising and unschooling her four sons, she focused on empowering women with home birthing and breastfeeding as a leader of the ILY La Leche League group in Rochester, NY, forming and leading the Society of Rochester Jewish Deaf, presenting on: environmental design, renewable energy, and sustainability, and teaching ASL to the rural community where her husband and she built their off-the-grid passive solar home.
In May 2017, Diana co-founded Deaf Refugee Advocacy and is currently serving as the Executive Director.

Stacy Marie Lawrence is a talented, energetic and vibrant leader, organizer, fundraiser and photographer whose accomplishments in the past decade include establishing a unique and highly successful film camp for deaf teenagers and helping to make the Deaf Rochester Film Festival one of the primary venues for showcasing films about, by and for individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing.

In 2013, Stacy conceived, directed and raised funds for a unique summer film camp for deaf teenagers. For two weeks, deaf and hard of hearing children from all over the country learned how to write, shoot and direct their own video productions under the tutelage of professional deaf filmmakers, animators and screenwriters from around the world. Profiled in several news stories, the camp was so successful that it has become an annual event. In August 2014, campers produced an ASL adaptation of Pharrell Williams’ smash hit “Happy,” which garnered international attention and over half a million YouTube hits in its first two weeks.

As DRFF’s Sponsorship Chair, she raised over $60,000 in grants and sponsorships for its four biennial festivals, developing a diverse sponsorship base spanning the deaf and hearing communities. She became its Executive Director in 2009, coordinating and managing all aspects of the 2009 and 2011 festivals, which brought talented deaf filmmakers to Rochester from all over the world. She developed lasting relationships with other prominent Rochester film festivals, the George Eastman House, the Little Theatre, ArtisanWorks and other stalwarts of the Rochester arts community.

Stacy is also the owner of Stacy Marie Lawrence Photojournalism, where she specializes in candid black-and-white photography of important events, children, weddings, births and anniversaries. In 2007, she designed, organized, promoted and displayed an exhibit of her photos from the 2006 Gallaudet protest, entitled “Sign Truth To Power,” at the RIT/NTID Dyer Arts Center.