About me

Recording bird sounds on St. Lazaria Island in Southeast Alaska for a radio story.

I am a documentary filmmaker and multimedia journalist. I do a little bit of everything. I shoot. I edit. I produce. I report.

My most recent project is a short documentary film titled “Old People Driving,” which chronicles the adventures of Milton (age 96) and Herbert (age 99) as they approach the end of their driving years. The film was awarded the 2010 Hearst Documentary Prize from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Before making moving pictures, I made still ones. My photographs have appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and in magazines including Marie Claire, Utne Reader, and Ms. Magazine. In 2003 I was a founding staff member of the national oral history project, Story Corps. I have also worked as a non-profit program director, photography teacher, picture framer, bookseller, bartender and artist’s model.

I am a graduate of Smith College and the documentary film program at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. I am based in Oakland, Calif., (but can occasionally be found in Brooklyn, N.Y., or Sitka, Ala.).