I started in the filmmaking realm as an actor, in NYC in the ’90’s. For a time, I also worked as assistant to the Chief Curator of Film at the Museum of Modern Art. MOMA afforded its employees some really nice professional development opportunities. I completed several filmmaking classes at NYU. This experience galvanized my interest in becoming a filmmaker.
In 1999 I moved to Maine. I worked as a teaching assistant and program manager at the Maine Media Workshops in Rockport. I thought I’d died and went to heaven! With the skills I developed and the network of talented professionals I worked with, I found both the confidence and the resources to direct and produce my first film, “TRAP,” a short dramatic piece about love, creativity and freedom.
In 2004, everything changed. I became a mother. I had a homebirth with my son in rural Montville, attended by professional midwives. It was the most powerful and transformative experience of my life. My birth activated a powerful interest in social change. I came to understand that most women did not have the kind of birth experience that I did. I wanted to do something to address that…to challenge marginalizing perceptions around homebirth and midwifery and be part of a movement to “take back” birth. My avenue was documentary film. I went to graduate school and immersed myself in an interdisciplinary program with Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as my main discipline. I felt like I’d come home. For my Master’s Project, I created, “At Home in Maine,” a one-of-a-kind online film series about homebirth and midwifery care.
This specialization parlayed into creating a niche for myself as a filmmaker working in the realm of reproductive health, collaborating with national social change organizations to produce public education campaigns, promotional, educational and advocacy-related video content.
My original passion for birth has expanded to include broader issues pertaining to gender, health, sexuality and power. I produce documentaries and other video content that seeks to incite social change in these areas.
I am also a Lecturer in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at the University of Maine.
In my free time I spend a lot of time outdoors…rowing, hiking, gardening…and romping around with my son, who is now 13 years old!
