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 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. For a time, 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 nature, freedom, creativity and love.
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 at the University of Maine and immersed myself in an interdisciplinary program with Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as my main focus. 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 women, our bodies and our health. My current focus centers on intersectional approaches concerning gender and sexuality, gender and violence…gender and power–and producing documentaries and other video content that seeks to incite social change in these areas.
I am also Adjunct Faculty 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…biking, swimming, gardening…and romping around with my son, who is now 12 years old!
