THIRST | EMMY Winner

Producer, Editor

2014 Lone Star Emmy Winner

An art installation takes on the pressing issue of water shortages and challenges the community to action. The Center For Women & Their Work presents THIRST, which memorializes the loss of over 300 million trees that died in the Texas in the drought of 2011. It will also look forward to encourage an exchange of ideas about the impact that a scarcity of water will have on Texas and beyond. It is the goal of THIRST to make the horrific loss visible while encouraging viewers to consider their relationship to water, our most precious resource. Aldo Leopold, the father of conservation ecology, said we must learn to "think like a mountain" when considering the balance of an ecosystem. But how can we learn to think like a drought?

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There Will Be Fun | Emmy winner

Associate Producer, Editor

2014 Lone Star Emmy Winner

In The music capital of the world, live music is a way of life for both music venues and performers. In recent years the proliferation of festivals and weekend events has made many people predict a major “event overload.” Not all festivals however were created equal. Run by a handful of passionate individuals and an army of volunteers, Fun Fun Fun Fest has quickly become one of the most relaxed, creative, and pioneering festivals in music today. Ever expanding and despite a mountain of logistical hurdles, Fun Fun Fun Fest manages to keep the feel of a backyard party and the joy of discovering new music intact.

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In Face

Director, Producer, Editor

Behind the makeup and false eyelashes of drag queens are the eccentric lives of brilliant performers. In Face follows the complex lives of three performance artists in three cities: Austin, Los Angeles, Atlanta. Each queen, with a unique life offstage, sheds a bit of light on the hectic and determined lifestyle of pursuing a drag career. Louisiana native and Hurricane Katrina victim, Paul Soileau decided to pursue his passion and talent for drag in Austin where the community welcomed his eccentric and daring alter egos of Christeene and Rebecca Havemeyer. With daring costumes and lavish handmade hair pieces, Gia Sunflowers always surprises the crowd with his gothic style as waiter and performer of a drag queen dining establishment in Atlanta. Obtaining success in Hollywood as contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race, television star William Belli tours the country as a performer while also gaining a career as a recording artist.

       
     
The Best Little Art House in Texas

Editor, Associate Producer

Cinephiles and art house movie theaters are an endangered species. There are only a handful of cities around the country where film lovers and filmmakers are partnering to maintain and rehabilitate the movie going experience. In Austin, TX, The Austin Film Society has set out to create the best little art house in Texas to help foster the next generation of film lovers. By providing Austin with an art house theater dedicated solely to classic, independent, and new art house film programming, AFS is ensuring the future of the Austin film community. Central to this endeavor is Lars Nilsen, the “superstar film programmer” that helped build the Alamo Drafthouse into a runaway success. But what is an art house? We are going on a journey to find out and to learn what others are doing.

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Let Me Tell You About The Octopus Project

Editor, Associate Producer

The Octopus Project has been releasing joyous instrumental music since 2002, all the while touring the world both on their own and as handpicked support for artists as diverse as Aesop Rock, DEVO, and Explosions in the Sky. They've earned a reputation as a band that creates exceptional experiences through elaborate multimedia experiments, lavish album packaging, and the intensity of their extremely fun, extremely loud live shows. The Octopus Project truly expresses the meaning of "multi" media by creating lively art through music, film and technology.

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A Reason to Dance | 1-Hour Special

Editor, Associate Producer

As a mother, teacher, and dancer, China Smith is on a quest to spread awareness about the mixed nature and diversity of the African diaspora through contemporary dance. Her company, Ballet Afrique, employs a synthesis of ballet and modern blended with Afrocentric undertones to articulate the human condition and spirit through the unbounded art form of dance. As Smith wrestles with the business aspect of sharing her art as well as the uphill battle against cultural expectations and the cultural stereotypes of ballet, she continues to cement herself as an indelible and essential part of the dance scene.

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In Their Words

Producer, Editor

SongwritingWith:Soldiers offers intensely immersive retreats to military veterans and active duty soldiers where they write songs about their experiences with the help of professional songwriters. Equal parts cathartic release and creative endeavor, SongwritingWith:Soldiers offers a chance at healing to the people who need it most.

       
     
The Thing We Are Not | SHORT

Producer, Editor

Across the disciplines of film, photography, painting and object making, artist Denise Prince’s work employs the commercial language of advertising to make explicit what is real or deftly, its counterpoint, fantasy. Prince's portrait on cancer survivor and apparel designer Gail Chovan is augmented by wit and made clear the pleasure with which she constructs narratives and then carefully disrupts them. Through the artistic process, Prince has learned to live better by uncovering the thing we are not.

       
     
Tiny Puppets

Editor, Associate Producer

Once There Were Six Seasons is a new work by Glass Half Full Theatre that uses puppetry and physical theater to address the impact of climate change on traditional farming societies around the world. Tiny puppet figures exist in vast spaces onstage, and visible puppeteers move the figures through a changing environmental landscape. Emphasis is placed on the shifting landscapes around the puppets, and on the puppeteers’ role as the “cause” of those changes.

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Rebirth

Producer, Editor

Born out of intense personal hardship, Les Rav – the classically-influenced experimental indie folk band – is the musical brainchild of Lauren Bruno, an ethereal, infinitely positive songwriter. Beyond the music, Bruno uses Les Rav to spread and foster a message of peace, connection, and understanding to anyone who will listen. Though diagnosed with ulcerative colitis early on in life, Bruno uses this often debilitating disease as motivation to spread her message of hope with even more fervor and intensity. Her haunting vocals and melodies reel listeners in but it’s her overwhelming sense of hopefulness and goodness that keeps them in.

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Rude Mechs

Producer, Editor

Since 1995, Rude Mechanicals have created original theatrical productions that represent a genre-defying cocktail of big ideas, cheap laughs, and dizzying spectacle. While fostering a truly collaborative environment – there are no individual leaders or directors – Rude Mechs has jumped into the national spotlight as one of the most innovative and subversive acting companies in the country. Their generous creative spirit also led them to create Grrrl Action, a summer arts mentoring program for teenage girls. This “punk theater” ensemble was born out of a desire for a truly collaborative environment, which has also led to their management of a multi-arts space for the artistic community.

       
     
Here and Beyond

Producer, Editor

Blue Lapis Light transforms urban environments into works of art. Specializing in large-scale productions in non-traditional public environments – such as federal buildings, power plants, or scaffolding at the shores of Lady Bird Lake – Blue Lapis Light’s aerial dance creates what founder Sally Jacques describes as “prayers for the planet.” By challenging physical limitations, Blue Lapis Light envelops its audiences in a sense of awe and wonder. Following the creation of performance "In Light," Jacques explores a journey of transformation through a collaboration with dancers and trust in climbing riggers to provide safety.

       
     
Performing Possibilities

Producer, Editor

Women are the fastest growing segment of the incarcerated population in the United States. Katherine Craft, seeing a great need for gender-specific programs for incarcerated women, founded Conspire Theatre in 2009 and has been run by Craft and coconspirator Michelle Dahlenburg since 2011.

Through the use of theatre, Conspire seeks to provide women prisoners a revolutionary and creative approach to healing from trauma, increasing self-esteem, becoming better parents, and improving literacy. With a deep, abiding belief in redemption, empowerment, and connection through art, the Conspire team is undergoing their most ambitious project yet. No longer satisfied with keeping their organization's work in the shadows of the penitentiary, they are taking the performances out into the public.

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A Light In The Dark

Producer, Editor

Produced locally and created by hand, Gail Chovan’s rich, textural clothing challenges notions of traditional beauty. Through personal and family health struggles, she realized what made her happy: going back to her roots, “to create, to sew on a small, still independent scale.” Life as her muse, she knows there is a light at the end of a dark tunnel. Chovan refuses to adhere to trend, the “rules” or the calendar of the fashion industry. Influenced more by her European-taught design aesthetic, Chovan stands alone in the Austin fashion world with her evocative, intriguing pieces.

       
     
The Influencers

Producer, Editor

From band posters to business logos, graphic designers are influencing the visual look of consumerism and shaping society’s experiences. Although ad agencies still loom large, the proliferation of technology has allowed a growing contingent of DIY graphic designers like Chris Bilheimer, Michael Sieben, and Geoff Peveto to make their mark on pop culture. If “ads are the cave art of the twentieth century” as Marshall McLuhan famously said, then the contemporary class of image makers are encapsulating our hopes, desires, and anxieties one pixel at a time.
 

       
     
Activism Like a Punk | short

Director, Producer, Editor

At the intersection of punk music, politics, and DIY artists lies the Combating Latent Inequality Together (C.L.I.T.) Fest. For ten years, C.L.I.T. Fest has provided a safe, welcoming community for all marginalized people and their allies through music, workshops, and artist collaboration. In its fight against sexism, transphobia, racism, and all forms of discrimination, proceeds from the festival benefit SafePlace, an organization dedicated to providing safety for individuals and families affected by sexual and domestic violence. This is a space that celebrates pushing against the norm, where its okay to be challenged and to challenge others. With this combination of music, DIY culture, and activism, C.L.I.T. Fest is a prime example of how to practice activism like a punk.