DOCUMENTARY
My Beautiful Stutter (2021)
producers
Paul Rudd, Mariska Hargitay, Ryan Gielen, Patrick James Lynch, Michael Alden, Peter Hermann, George Springer
director
Ryan Gielen
distributors
Discovery+ (US), SkyTV (UK/Europe), NHK (Japan), Al Jazeera (Middle East/Various), Vimeo OnDemand (Worldwide)
impact
❯ 300+ worldwide screenings in 30 countries
❯ 2 million+ social engagements across FB/Instagram
❯ 10 Festivals, 5 Best Doc Awards
❯ WINNER: Shorty Social Good Award, 2020
My Beautiful Stutter follows five kids who stutter, ages 9 to 18, from all over the United States and all walks of life, who, after lifetimes of bullying and stigmatization, meet other children who stutter at an interactive arts-based program, The Stuttering Association for the Young (SAY), based in New York City.
Their journey to SAY find some close to suicide, others withdrawn and fearful, exhausted and defeated from failed fluency training, societal pressures to not stutter or the decision to remain silent. Over the course of a year we witness first hand the incredible transformation that happens when these young people of wildly different backgrounds experience for the first time the revolutionary idea at the heart of SAY: that it's okay to stutter.
WINNER SHORTY SOCIAL GOOD AWARD THE 2020 SHORTY AWARDS WINNER BEST DOCUMENTARY 2019 BOSTON INTERNATIONAL KIDS FILM FESTIVAL WINNER AUDIENCE AWARD BEST FILM, SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS 2019 NAPA VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL WINNER VIOLA MARSHALL AUDIENCE AWARD BEST DOCUMENTARY 2019 RHODE ISLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL WINNER BEST DOCUMENTARY 2019 GOLDEN DOOR FILM FESTIVAL WINNER BEST DOCUMENTARY 2019 DOC SUNBACK FESTIVAL.
