My current project: 72 Fest

Show & Teach: The Women Who Fostered Art in Frederick County - Less than 30 years ago, the 6 subjects of this film unleashed their creativity onto what was then a small, rural town in southern Maryland. Because of these artists, Frederick has been transformed. It is now a city with a booming arts scene and a profusion of local artists
These 6 women set in a motion the emergence of art in all of Frederick County and have continued to guide it not only by producing original creations, but also by sharing their talent and knowledge as art teachers in the public schools.
Margaret Dowell, Veronica Nehemias, Gail Padget, Anne Gibson Snyder, and Harriet Wise sit down with me and openly reflect on their art, ambitions, trials, and innermost moments throughout the past 25 years.
Original music by John Booko, sound by Chris Howell, and co-produced by Margie Mott (she was on the Delaplaine side of the house). Thanks so much to everyone who had a hand in Show & Teach.

Storytelling: folks and tales, Part 1 - I guess this would be genre-fied as a nonfiction film. It screened before the premiere of Pepi Singh Khara's feature, Footsie and the Toe. The first half is an editorial piece that I wrote about the nature of independent film. It also dealt with the fact that humans, for the most part, are born storytellers, and the best films are those stories from the heart. The end of Part 1 poses a theory of mine about cultural sayings that is used as the lead-in to the second half.

Storytelling: folks and tales, Part 2 - In the second part I wondered what stories are like from other cultures. I guess this half would be more classified as just non-fiction film, since it's a montage of people from different cultures giving sayings, parables, old wives tales, etc from their native country. For me it was extremely interesting to make this part, and hopefully you, as the audience, will find it interesting as well. The sayings/people are from the following countries (no particular order): India, Philippines, Ireland, Iran, Ghana, Estonia, Turkey, and Brazil. I'd like to thank all those involved (both crew and actors). Also, a big thanks to Amy DeFoggi and Pepi for letting me borrow equipment, and to the Delaplaine Visual Arts Center for letting me use the studio space for free. Check out the little production journal retrospective I wrote about this film on my "writings" page.

The Lartigue Mechanic - This award winning film is about the discovery of creativity in unlikely places. It centers around an art gallery custodian and his search to create art.

The Streets - This is the first music video that I've ever made. It is for John Booko's debut CD, Simply Put. I came up with the idea for it while doing some driving between Michigan and ONU. Stylistically, it is supposed to have a free-flowing documentary-ish feel. The colors and driving sequences were highly influenced by the Mexican film, Y tu mama tambien, while the guitar footage is based off of PBS's Austin City Limits. Look for the little hommage to Bob Dylan. It was shot with a Canon XL2 in anamorphic 24p frames/sec. And of course it was edited on FCP 4.5 HD.