Michael Joseph McDonald

Michael Joseph McDonald is an Emmy Award-winning American filmmaker and writer who co-directs films with people with intellectual disabilities, using a method he calls adaptive filmmaking. His short On Loneliness (2025) won a 2026 Capital Emmy and was nominated for a Webby. Freebird (2021), co-directed with Joe Bluhm, is a wordless animated short about a man with Down syndrome. It won the Oscar-qualifying jury prize at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival. His documentary 6,000 Waiting (2021) follows three Georgians stuck on a waiting list for the care they need to live at home, and won Best Short Documentary in Montreal. He also made the web series As I Am (2015-2018), filmed in twelve countries, including a Japanese community's response to the 2016 Sagamihara massacre. His work has been screened at the White House, the United Nations and at the request of Pope Francis. A former caregiver and ghostwriter of four nonfiction books, he founded the nonprofit production company Everable.