A Filmmaker's Journey
1992, Women and Their Role Models, based upon interviews with ten women in Fairbanks, Alaska, we create a photo essay that tours the US West Coast as part of a state-funded annual exhibition. During this time I also learn carpentry, work with at-risk teens, and coach youth soccer. In close connection with the planet, life is modest, simple and free.
1995, young man with camera en route to Central Asia - a rising record label invites me to make music videos with Chinese rock bands. These projects lead to ten years of commercial television editing in China and the USA.
2006. With the people of York County, Maine, I film and edit American Fair, my first feature-length documentary, the story of a rural community working together to preserve their agricultural heritage (available through Documentary Educational Resources).
2010. Back in China, UNICEF and the China Disabled Persons’ Federation invite me to film Dance Language, the story of a team of hearing-impaired dancers preparing for a nationally televised competition. This beautiful film screens at the Beijing International FF.
2013. Legend of the Stone documents conceptual artist Zhan Wang’s existential ordeal: filming the explosion of a 200-ton rock, to create an exhibition experience about the origin of space and time.
2013. Catalyst, based upon interviews with more than 100 artists and curators, twenty years of artists from China at the Venice Biennale, this retrospective documentary reveals China's shifting attitudes towards the West. The film premiers at the 55th Venice Biennale.
2015. Enduring Passion for Ink, in collaboration with Britta Erickson, we create a series of 10 short films which depict the diversity and vitality of contemporary Chinese ink painting.
Now home in Massachusetts, unpacking 25 years On the Road - beginning to understand that the higher power I have been searching for has been within me all along. I can smell the long-life noodles cooking in the kitchen. Almost time for dinner.