About Me

I'm a documentary filmmaker, producer, writer and mother of two.

75 Things About Me:

1. I was born in Jefferson, Iowa...a typical small midwestern town of less than 5,000 people.

2. I am the oldest of seven children...4 girls & 3 boys (the four youngest from my father's second marriage). Rumor has it I have another sister (fathered between his marriages), but he has never met her and doesn't even know her name or where she lives.

3. I co-wrote a screenplay based on this story (real life as fodder for film and all that!); and it is now being developed by a NYC based production company!!

4. Between birth and age 12 we lived in at least eight different small Iowa towns. This meant I attended at least six different elementary schools.

5. Fortunately, I was almost always the smartest kid in the class…or at least the one who easily achieved straight A’s.

6. For most of my childhood, my dad was a severe alcoholic who abused my mom physically and verbally.

7. My siblings and I were afraid of him and my mom finally divorced him when I was 12. I only saw him about once a year after that.

8. He quit drinking about ten years ago and now we are actually quite close and talk about once a week.

9. My mom and I weren't super close growing up, but now have a nice relationship as well.

10. And, of course, now that I'm a mom myself, I have a lot more appreciation for moms in general.
I even co-created a TV show about the reality of motherhood (see "Breeding Ground" under My Projects).

11. I can’t believe I’m already at #11 and haven’t mentioned my husband and kids.

12. I’ve been married to Chris, a fantastic guy, for 14 years.

13. We adopted two amazing kids from Guatemala…Ally and Noah, both age nine. (they are virtual twins…born two weeks apart to different birth moms.)

12. The adoption took two and a half years and was fairly stressful, but it was the best thing we’ve ever done (they were 13 months old when we became a family).

13. Ally is the most enthusiastic kid I've ever known...she has no fear and will try anything. Right now she's into karate and wants to be a "funny" actress. She cracks us up with her improv characters...I call her the Hispanic Tracy Ullman!

14. Noah is the charmer in the family and he has a laugh that is contagious. He has informed us that when he grows up "he's going to be a scientist, and that's all he'll ever be, so don't try to change his mind." We can live with that. Although lately, he seems to have changed HIS mind and now wants to become a zookeeper :)

15. Chris is my second husband. My first marriage lasted five years in my early 20’s to my college sweetheart.

16. I left him after realizing we just weren’t meant to be…nothing traumatic, just grew apart. It's weird to think I spent nine years with someone and now know nothing about his life.

17. I met Chris while working at an insurance company (we each had the same job in different parts of the country and became friends while attending very boring meetings).

18. I wound up in the insurance industry after majoring in business in college...it was the best job available at the time I graduated.

19. I worked for two insurance companies and transferred seven times in 12 years.

20. It just hit me that this eerily parallels the first twelve years of my life.

21. As a result, I’m pretty good at moving to new places and fitting in.

22. My insurance career showed me that I can do something I really dislike and still succeed.

23. When I left this career, I was earning over six figures and was one of the “up and coming” women in a company of over 10,000 people.

24. I haven’t missed it for a minute :)

25. I tried a couple of other things before deciding to try filmmaking.

26. One of my step-sisters and I started a corporate meeting planning firm. Our first job was for a Japanese company who asked us to plan a meeting in Istanbul, Turkey...not bad for two small town Iowa girls.

27. Shortly after this, my husband was transferred to Bermuda. We lived there for four years…it’s not as idyllic as you think.

28. My first night there I ended up in the ER unable to breathe...turns out I'm severely allergic to cockroaches. Unfortunately, Bermuda is famous for them.

29. I do have several great friends I met there…mostly from England, Scotland and Canada. They will be life-long friends :)

30. And I highly recommend living outside the U.S. for a period of time to everyone...a surefire way to appreciate what we've got here even though it's not perfect.
However, I don’t care if I ever go to another island again!

31. While in Bermuda, I decided to become a personal coach and completed my certification.
My specialty was helping people identify and pursue their life’s dreams.

32. I found that while I’m a pretty good at coaching, most people still had trouble going after their dreams. I decided to try filmmaking to show my clients it can be done (with no degree and no contacts!)

33. I don’t know exactly when I realized that this was MY dream.
All I do know is that I never once read an insurance magazine while on an airplane…but I have religiously read People and Entertainment Weekly for years.

34. I decided to start with documentary filmmaking because it seemed the most interesting and cost effective route.

35. I never attended film school.

36. I DID hire a smart young director of photography to help me with all of the technical aspects.
She has been the Director of Photography on all three of my documentaries :)

37. I made my first film, What’s So Funny? in about 18 months from beginning to end. It was accepted into over ten festivals and screening series and won two awards.

38. I'm proud of the film for a first effort, and still can’t believe I did it! Aside from marrying my husband and adopting my children, seeing my films screen in a packed theater and hearing genuine and enthusiastic applause at the end has been the biggest high of my life.

39. My ultimate career goal is, of course, to win an Oscar. That’s why this blog is called Oscar Bound (you gotta do the visualization thing).

40. I run my own non-profit production company, Chrysalis Productions, Inc., and am a founding partner in LikeMinded Entertainment.

41. My second doc, "Snake Hill" has also won a few awards; and I'm just finishing my 3rd, "The BlueBelles". We are writing a book to go along with it as well :)

42. We have now expanded into screenwriting & development as well as TV production, filming a TV pilot called "Wit's End" in 2008. So far the pilot has made it into five festivals and we are hoping to sell it one day soon :)

43. It seems I've gone a bit crazy with all of this, but life is good and I love what I do. Did I mention I'm also launching an internet radio show called "The Nitty Gritty Cafe"?
Why? Because I love meeting and talking to new people!

44. Did I mention that I LOVE elephants? They speak to me :)

45. I’ve discovered that there are a lot of strange and annoying people in the film world. I plan to write about them in this blog occasionally.

46. Writing is something I enjoy doing and I’ve kept a journal for about ten years. A few years ago I decided to start a blog.

47. I'm blessed to have many great friends and am grateful for each of them!!

48. Speaking of friends, my best friend since childhood passed away from AIDS six years ago after a 17 year battle.

49. I really miss her and have wanted to do a film about women with AIDS as a tribute to her.

50. I didn't want to make the film until I felt competent as a filmmaker.
Hopefully, I will be up to the challenge one day soon.

51 I’m trying to learn that I have to be careful about taking on too much at one time. Every time I do, I come down with some health issue (nothing major to date, thankfully!)

52. Overall I’m pretty healthy but could lose about 30 lbs. and have struggled with some stress related issues and allergies over the years.

53. I’ve tried several diets but basically agree diets don’t work.

54. Now I try to focus on being reasonable with food and getting some exercise...but mostly just on self-acceptance and taking care of myself.

55. I used to be into tennis and spinning. Now I'm into jumping on the mini-tramp which allows me to play loud music and dance around.

56. I love music and think people should dance to it more often…how effective this will be as a weight loss tool remains to be seen.

57. I’ve tried to get into yoga, but am bored after 25 minutes and can rarely quiet my mind although I know it might be good for me.

58. I'm now trying to meditate for 15 minutes a day.

59. I’ve never used drugs and rarely drink.

60. Some people probably think I’m pretty square...especially in the film community!

61. I don’t condemn those who do these things…I just like to be in control of myself and my actions.

62. Ok, I condemn them a little bit...but really only those that are over-indulging.

63. Too much of anything is a bad thing in my book...I think balance is the key to life.

64. I regularly take stock of my life in all areas and try to tackle those things that aren't working.
I guess all those years of coaching got to me.

65. I’ve pretty much always been independent and rarely, if ever, follow the crowd.

66. I’m proud of this, but it can leave me feeling “on the outside” at times.

67. Fortunately, I've developed a great group of friends and feel very blessed.

68. On a completely separate note, I was raised a Catholic, but rebelled against it as a teen and rarely attend church.

69. I’ve tried several different churches to find a fit, but don’t seem to resonate with any of them.

70. Despite this I feel like a deeply spiritual person and try to live according to the Golden Rule.

71. People would say I’m very generous.

72. My ultimate life goal would be to have enough money to spend most of my time doing philanthropic deeds.

73. I really admire Mother Teresa and wish I could be more like her.

74. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can live in poverty-stricken conditions.

75. But that doesn’t mean I can’t help those who do (ok, so maybe I'll make a film about that too!)