I am a first-time documentary director, age 71. I have an MFA in Film Production from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. I also have an MPA (Public Administration) and BA from The Ohio State University. I was a Senior Broadcast Producer for a public affairs talk show at WOSU Public Media, NPR station, Columbus, Ohio. I taught Screenwriting and Film History at the Columbus College of Art and Design and The Ohio State University.

Program 60 at the Ohio State University (for seniors age 60 and older) gave me the opportunity to take a documentary video production class at the Ohio State University Department of Theatre, Film and Media Arts, and to make my first documentary Champions Together.

What began as an interview with my sister-in-law, Joan Taylor, an Anat Baniel Method NeuroMovement Practitioner, about her work with special needs children, became a full documentary when the mothers of two children allowed me to video their child’s “lessons” (sessions) and to participate as interview subjects, themselves. The documentary’s title Champions Together reflects the reality that improving functioning for special needs children is a team effort between the Anat Baniel Method NeuroMovement Practitioner, the child and their parents.

As shown in my documentary, the movement-based clinical approach of the Anat Baniel Method NeuroMovement helps children with special needs by creating new neural pathways, taking advantage of brain plasticity. Specifically, an infant with a Brachial Plexus injury at birth regained full use of his paralyzed left arm at six months without having to undergo a 13-hour surgery. A three-year-old girl with Cerebral Palsy gained increased physical and cognitive functioning.

Making this documentary fulfilled my dream to put my filmmaking training to creative use and to hopefully make a difference in the lives of special needs children and their families.