Deborah Vatcher made her first film at the age of 12, while enrolled in a summer arts program in the public schools of Rochester, NY. With ready access to Kodak super 8 cameras and film, she created a series of short films, enlisting her younger sisters as actors, and her parents as drivers. Now retired from her medical practice, she completed a filmmaking course at the Harvard Extension School at Harvard University in the fall of 2021, and documentary film classes at Emerson College in 2023. She continues to study the art of filmmaking, editing, and music production through a variety of courses and programs available online, and is currently a student at the online film academy The Art of Documentary.