I got into filmmaking by making skateboarding videos with my friends. I started to practice documentary production in college with a student film about a family member’s military experience – from combat to court martial. I learned a lot about directing, producing, writing, and editing as an intern at Florentine Films in Walpole, N.H., while getting a degree from Hampshire College. My thesis was a feature-length doc about Slovenia’s war for independence from Yugoslavia [Best Five-College Filmmaker award at the 2003 Northampton Independent Film Festival]. After graduating I worked as an Associate Producer and Assistant Editor with Florentine Films/Hott Productions, an Academy Award-nominated studio in western Massachusetts. I returned to Vermont in 2004 and made a small film about a family overcoming Lou Gehrig’s Disease. It was presented on Vermont Public Television, at the Sun Valley Spiritual Film Festival, by the ALS Association, and won a Director’s Award at the 2006 Hearts and Minds Film Festival.I then spent six years managing a special education resource room at a public high school, served as a town constable and animal control officer, and in 2011 was appointed to represent four towns in the Vermont House of Representatives. I served on the House Agriculture Committee for five years and was a lead sponsor and co-author of a bill mandating the labeling of foods produced with genetic engineering – the first in the nation to go into effect before being federally squashed. I also helped end the prohibition of hemp cultivation and worked to expand markets for small farmers. Perhaps my proudest moment was presenting and defending a bill designating the Gilfeather turnip as Vermont’s state vegetable, while the elementary school students who lobbied for the bill witnessed democracy in action.I am currently the chair of the Barnard Development Review Board and president of the Barnard Community Trust, which stewards the Barnard General Store's (est. 1832) building and grounds. My ongoing film project is a new documentary film about Dorothy Thompson, the pioneering anti-fascist foreign correspondent of the 20th century (see www.withoutfearorfavorfilm.com).