Career Part 4:
Attending documentary film school at Stanford University was one of the best things I ever did. Never in my wildest dreams did I guess that would ever happen. I met 24 amazing other students, directed four short films and overcame (to a degree) a debilitating fear of speaking in public.
In between the two years at Stanford, and after graduation, I went back to NYC and worked again for Big Mouth Productions. During this time, I was working on films that were directly contributing to contemporary, societal conversations. One of my own films, Small Town Secrets, was a personal film about about growing up in a small midwestern town with closeted, gay parents. This short film reached a very wide audience and I got a blissful glimpse of what success looked like as a filmmaker.
My partner at the time was also interested in filmmaking and was becoming a very good cinematographer. After Stanford he and I directed, produced and edited a feature documentary about exorcisms in Romania. We went back to his hometown to find out why he had been taken to an exorcism when he was 18. I spent a year editing the film, and we had interest from major film festivals and distributors. We were invited to the prestigious Sundance Producers Conference where we met the film's future producers, Todd and Jedd Wider. It was an exciting time. However, after a very long festival submission process we only received rejection letters. We were very disappointed because we had hoped this film would be our calling card. Together, we would be a documentary filmmaking team and this film was going to jump start our career. This proved to be a major turning point for my career and my personal life at the time.
After a very, very difficult year finishing the film, I went back to NYC and worked again for Big Mouth Productions (via Arts Engine) and this time line produced the first three episodes of Little Pim (a language video series for kids). At this time, I was deciding on what would be next. I felt like I had two options: stay in New York where documentary film was exciting and there were many prospects for a freelance, independent filmmaker career - OR move to Seattle where there was not this prospect, but instead there was the draw of my family (my brother and his family and my mother) and the desire to move to a place where I would stay and settle down (at this point, I had moved every year for the last 17 years).
AHHHH I had just finished the most amazing five years of my life producing and directing documentary films - where I felt successful and creative and challenged in every way.
However, it had became clear that the lack of financial stability did not suit my personality. But more importantly at this point, what I desperately wanted more than anything was a family of my own. I hedged my bets that leaving New York City would give me a better chance of making this happen.
In 2008 I moved to Seattle. I was 35.
