Sometimes on long bike rides, I try to imagine whether any future career change would surprise me. Could I imagine myself living with tribes in Papua New Guinea? Totally. In the daily grind as a banker in Hong Kong? Perhaps. Working in a war zone with the US Military? I mean… it could happen. But even [...]

How do you film dance? Now that’s a great question. Given that I am a dancer and that I just spent a year (and tons of money) learning to film, you would think I’d have a decent answer. But it’s tricky. Even if you know good dancing, it takes skill and study to film dance [...]

I first saw Climate Refugees advertised a few years ago and finally had the opportunity to watch it today. My first impression upon picking up the DVD at the library was that it had won a lot of awards: Official Selection at Sundance, the Los Angeles Film Festival, Cannes and Woods Hole Film Festivals. However, [...]

Over the couple of weeks, our lindy hop documentary has taken over most my my life. Luckily, with the exception of some technical problems with our hard drive, Sarah and I are really enjoying the experience. We continue to stalk Jenna and James around Chicago. Our newest shots include: 1. Jenna and her boyfriend, Jeff, in [...]

My partner, Sarah Eberspacher, and I have finalized our documentary plans for the next 10 weeks. Our lead is Jenna Stworzyjanek, who runs Big City Swing in Chicago. She and her partner James Pustejovsky will be competing in the American Lindy Hop Championships in May right here in the Windy City. I have always considered [...]

And so begins the search for the subject of my documentary. My first idea was the book that my adviser, Abigail, is writing about an ancient American agrarian civilization called Cohokia. Cohokia is located just outside of Saint Louis on the Mississippi River, so a site visit would be possible, although the drive would be [...]