In September 2009, we had a Work-In-Progress test screening at NW Film Forum.  While the audience felt it was a perfectly lovely film, they really pushed us to dig deeper—to get past “Seattle Nice” and reveal the truth, the core, the heart of our film.

This screening served as a wake up call for both Eric (Co-Producer/Editor) and I that the road ahead of us was going to be the hardest yet.  Not only were we not as close to the finish line as we had thought.  But this film was going to push us to confront the very hot spots we’d been avoiding.

Turns out, our audience could not have been more right.  Once we opened up to the reality of what was right there in front of us, the story started to flow.  Most of our scenes have remained the same.  But we are completely overhauling the story’s point of view.  After 5 years of fearing the well-worn pitfalls of first-person documentaries, I finally stepped into the role of storyteller.

So now my film journey is the story—where this film has pushed me to go, and what it brought up for me personally as a filmmaker, a mother, an activist.

Last month, I had the pleasure of talking about our film with Jeremy Richards on KUOW Presents) and Susan McCabe on Vashonia (pictured below.)