My Working Day

Interviewing American presidents, meeting criminal cults, discussing international terrorism… When you’re making documentaries, there isn’t a typical day at the office. I might be up before sunrise to capture images in the best light of the day, or navigating several levels of security to film an interview at the UN, or be hidden away in a dark room trying to piece together all the images and sounds we have collected.

As a freelance director and producer, I work on all sorts of projects, from feature films and TV series to short films and political campaign ads. The first film I worked on was a documentary about President Gerald Ford. After studying political science and international relations at the College of the Holy Cross in the US, I worked in consulting and lobbying in Washington DC, but wanted to try something different. I saw an advert from a production company looking for a researcher, and my political background helped me get the job. I ended up being made associate producer and interviewed contributors including Henry Kissinger.

I quickly fell in love with the whole process of researching something deeply and talking to the people at the center of the story. It’s important to have curiosity about, and empathy for, experiences entirely unlike your own when telling someone’s story, which is something I was exposed to during my time at ZIS. In an international school you meet people from different cultures and backgrounds. I didn’t realise how unique and special that education was until I moved back to America.

Since then I’ve covered topics including the US gun-control debate, voting rights and the opioid crisis. Right now, I’m working on a beautiful story about the history of whale acoustic science, told mainly through archive material. When developing a film, I look for a real human story at the center. You might believe people need to hear about an important political or social issue, but if there isn’t a human element, the audience won’t necessarily connect with it.

To do that, you need subjects to share incredibly personal experiences, like Slay The Dragon, for example, a film I co-produced about a political activist fighting to preserve democracy in Michigan. I was so grateful for our subject’s vulnerability in telling that story, so we could make a political issue meaningful. My biggest project to date was co-directing a four-part Netflix series, Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey, about the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It took four years to make and, for me, the best part was that the subjects all felt well-represented. As a storyteller, I don’t think objectivity and compassion are mutually exclusive.

My work can be emotionally draining, so I make sure to do the simple things, like running and eating well. I also make sure to always be taking in some fiction, because so much of my work is very real and sometimes fiction can be more honest than the truth.

The most satisfying part of my job – that I get a finished product that represents all the hard work – is also the most difficult, because it means it’s all over. Finishing a film is always bittersweet: I’m proud, but then it’s onto the next one.