Bio
I am an award-winning filmmaker and a professor at Pace University. I am also a 2022 Public Voices Fellow on the Climate Crisis with the OpEd Project and Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
My documentaries focus on social issue stories and have generated critical acclaim and applause at film festivals. My new documentary "How To Power A City,” releases in 2022. On the long road to releasing the feature documentary, several short films from “How To Power A City” have screened around the world. One — "Solar Libre: Family Affair" — won The Director’s Award, Best Short Puerto Rico Documentary, at the 2019 Rincón International Film Festival in Puerto Rico. Others screened at film festivals in Toronto, Melbourne, San Francisco, Detroit, New York City, and several other places. You can find the full list here: Short film screenings.
In 2022 I was honored to be selected as a Public Voices Fellow on the Climate Crisis, a fellowship collaboration with the OpEd Project and Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. My op-eds have been published in national magazines, and you can read them here: Op-Eds and other writing.
My other films include “The Poetry Deal: a film with Diane di Prima” (2011), which was embraced by di Prima’s fan base as a rare glimpse into this avant-garde poet’s storied life. It remains the only documentary solely focused on the life and work of this legendary poet, who passed away in October 2020. In 2022, “The Poetry Deal” begins airing on PBS and public television stations across the U.S., and within a few months broadcast literally coast-to-coast - from Alaska to Hawaii and New York To California. My first film, “Sir: Just A Normal Guy” (2001), was released to acclaim at LGBTQ festivals and events internationally, and received as a sensitive first-person portrait of a widely misunderstood area of human experience. Both “Sir” and “The Poetry Deal” were used widely in educational settings and are in the permanent collections of the nation’s most prestigious universities.
My career has had an unswerving focus on media for social change and has been recognized with grants from:
the New York State Arts Council, the Andrew W. Mellon / Periclean Faculty Leadership Program, the Queens Council on the Arts, the Brooklyn Arts Council, The Solutions Journalism Network, The Yip Harburg Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, The Eastman Fund, and the IFP Project Involve. My celebratory video about the historical importance of LGBTQ literature, “An LGBTQI Book Saved My Life” (2014), made for the Lambda Literary Awards, was featured to outstanding reviews on www.Advocate.com.
As a professor, I help a new generation of filmmakers learn their craft and find their voices.
Through courses in writing, directing, editing, producing, and film history/contemporary film, and a focus on experiential production courses in which student teams work with community organizations to create short videos and multimedia pieces. These collaborations have included the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (a 5-minute documentary now screening in the Museum’s kiosks and for guests); Parenting, Prisons, and Pups (a short documentary about a program using therapy dogs to help women in the incarceration system learn parenting skills); and Teatown Lake Preserve (nine short documentaries about their programs, including EagleFest and Mission Eel:possible).
As an academic, my research interests include diversity in media, personal documentary, environmental communications, and teaching methodologies for film and media production.
My writing has been published in World War Zero, The Progressive Magazine, NACLA Report on the Americas, EDITMedia, the Journal of Film and Media, and Women’s eNews. I frequently speak at conferences and events, most recently, these have included the College Art Association, International Communication Association, National Communication Association, University Film and Video Association, Broadcast Education Association, National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association, and as a moderator at the Jacob Burns Film Center.
My producing work extends beyond my own films.
Prior to entering academia full-time, I worked for Emmy- and Peabody-award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa at Futuro Media Group as a Special Projects Producer, creating multi-platform media events for the NPR show Latino USA and the PBS series America By The Numbers with Maria Hinojosa. I also served as crew on documentaries screening at the New York Film Festival, Full Frame Film Festival, and the Williamsburg Independent Film Festival, in various roles such as post-production supervisor, cinematographer, and colorist.
I earned an MFA in Film and Media from Temple University and a BA in Political Science from the University of Michigan. I grew up outside of Lansing, Michigan, now live in New York City, and have lived in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Washington D.C.
More about my work on IMDB or LinkedIn: