Me a long time ago.
Me now.
Annalise grew up and now sings country music, as well as jazz, folk and her own songs.
Me after the marathon, tired and happy.
Keni, best dog in the world. We miss you.
©2008 Innerstace. All Rights Reserved.
About
I'm a 7th generation Texan with roots deep in the central part of our state, where the hills are few, and the people are friendly. Being so grounded, I yearned to travel beyond the borders of Texas, big in myth as well as size. I traveled as best I could, by spending my allowance on movies and books. That wasn't enough, so I made up stories of my own. I grew up, went to college, and spent a year as an exchange student in Wales. I traveled as far as the European trains would take me (pretty far) during every school break (pretty often). Some of these adventures took a scary turn, but they all had happy endings.
Despite my dreams of the Peace Corp, the Foreign Legion, or National Geographic, I finished school (B.A. in English and radio/TV/film, minor in drama) and began a totally different adventure: parenthood. Parenthood requiring income, I worked in technical and book publishing, as a writer, editor, photographer, videographer and producer. When my daughter was almost 5, I packed her up and moved her to Seattle when I was offered a job at Microsoft. We soon fell in love with the Pacific Northwest, but after 7 years--the last with a record 70 consecutive days of rain--it was time to come home. The three of us (for by now we had a dog) took our time as we traveled back to Texas. We wanted to see the distance between the two places we knew and liked the best. I kept my DV camera close at hand and used it frequently.
I made short films in college, put them aside while I learned how to be a mom, and resumed filmmaking in Seattle. My buddy and I produced each other's shorts and worked on film projects around town. I made my first 16mm short in 1997. Documentaries allow me to be an avid observer while I tell a story. I can ponder, listen, stay too long on a shot, watch and wait for the moment when the guard comes down and trust is sealed. That's when I feel once again like a traveler, as though I'm seeing something rare and learning a story that needs to be told again, respectfully.
I finished producing jumping off bridges, but as anyone who knows what producer's do (and if you know, please tell me), the work is never done. We signed a deal with New Day films and I'm managing the distribution efforts. I've moved on from Storie Productions to focus on my own work and have finished a pilot for Roadside USA, a project that lets me travel around and take a lot of pictures, two of my favorite things to do. I have a new producer who is looking at turning it into a web series. I've been teaching; Advanced Filmmaking at the Austin School of FIlm and Spring Break filmmaking camp at the Austin Film Society. This summer I taught at Femme Film girl's summer camp and with the Mobile Film School's teacher training series.
Now, I'm looking at producing a series of short documentaries for podcasts, educational screenings and streaming. This way, I can do short indie projects, get my documentary hat back on and not commit several years to a single project. I'm also playing with the audio documentary format, something I've wanted to do since I used to listen to radio dramas and stories while living in the U.K.
When I'm not working on stuff, I make art, run and ride my bike. I'm looking forward to continuing all of these in a higher altitude. I've run 2 and a half marathons over the past three years and have been getting strong. I am fully recovered from the wreck of 2000 and while I'll still never drive a Ford again, I have driven SUV's once or twice when I had to. I took my now grown up daughter to France last year for two weeks and we tooled around the country having crazy and wonderful adventures. This spring she took herself to New Guinea where she lived in a village and helped build houses for Habitat for Humanity. Of all the things I've done, she's the best one. She's now in Nashville studying music and is about to cut her first EP.
After being in Texas for 9 years, my wanderlust is back. I'm planning a trip West in the coming months. I'll stay with friends on the western slope of the Rockies in Colorado. I'm looking forward to the small town, good friends, new people, interesting work and new sites to see as well as snowboard season!