History
- Blog
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- Member for
- 1 year 36 weeks
*My Story
- I am
I am a committed filmmaker and educator with compassion and drive.
- I earn my daily bread
Running a film and video program for 100 high school students in Alameda, California.
- How my leadership has changed as a result of OTV
I have grown a backbone, I have confidence and vision, and I understand what it means to do whatever it takes.
- Where I’ve come from and where I expect to be in the next 3-5 years
I grew up in the Bay Area, the oldest of three kids. I have lived in New York, Los Angeles, London, Massachusetts, San Francisco, and Oakland. In the next three years I plan to complete my fifth documentary and get a masters degree in broadcast journalism.
- My story of impact
The light of the projector flickered as sounds of nervous laughter floated over the crowd. I turned back, away from the screen to see a young man standing in front of me. Tears where welling up in his eyes and he was looking to me for answers. “I have tried everything and it just doesn’t look right,” he said. And I believed him, In fact I knew he had tried everything, for the past two nights he had called almost every hour with some problem or another. But the show had begun and his film was not yet at the screening. My attention is momentarily pulled away by the sound of laughter as friends of a particularly macho football player see their friend in a frilly wizard costume chanting incantations on the big screen.
I turn back to Maxx, I tell him my best guess and remind him once again that no matter how hard he has worked a deadline is still a deadline. I assure him that he can make it and he turns and runs out of the theater, sprinting the 5 blocks to his house. As I watch him leave I turn my thoughts to ways to stall the crowd and the judges who have come to evaluate these films. 30 minutes pass and no sign of Maxx, I call an impromptu bathroom break and hope that he is close. As I am about to call people back into their seats Maxx runs through the door. Out of breath, he says, “It worked.” beaming, he hands me the tape and I run up to the projector and get it ready.
The lights dim, a slow pan of the bay fills the screen. His film plays and much to my delight it is good, so good that the judges pick his film as the winner. Maxx takes the stage and I congratulate him and his team for their hard work. Regardless of my pride for their accomplishment a sense of irony was not lost on me. On my second day at the high school Maxx had screamed at me “Don’t Fuckin Touch Me!”. This was both a personal moment of shock and in reflecting I can’t help but think of the famous line in the Wizard of Oz, “Dorothy, you are not in Kansas anymore.”. But at the end of the year receiving public accolades for his vision, Maxx stands next me an award-winning filmmaker.
It is one of the most amazing things about people that personal power and agency can be passed, generation to generation, and person to person. In On the Verge I participated in a “Fire walk” a practice in which you are challenged to move a group of strangers to stand. You simple stand before them and speak until you move them. This was a terrifying experience but it gave me power and confidence to see that my vision and personhood could inspire others. On the Verge gave me my “Fire walk” and I took it and gave it to Maxx. And I know as he grows he will pass it on to someone else.
