The Tortoise Whisperer

I was born in Los Angeles at the Queen Of The Angels
Hospital and for the first 11 years of my life my family lived
in Monterey Park. While in the fifth grade, my family moved
to the west side of Los Angeles. I attended John Burroughs
Junior High School, Fairfax High School, LA City College,
UC Santa Cruz, State University of NY at Buffalo, was in the
Teacher Corps (Buffalo)/Peace Corps (Afghanistan), and
then returned to LA where I started teaching at Locke High
School, and then at Lynwood at Lynwood High School.
After many years I went back to school to learn about
computer programming and began working on project
involving satellites test stations and worked in that field
until 2004.

Since the age of 3, I enjoyed playing piano and later, while in High School started playing guitar. I had a small recording studio but later wanted to consolidate and bought a new apple computer so that I could reduce my footprint with a much smaller electronic interface. But after a few lessons I discovered a supplied program (iMovie)
and my life changed on a dime. My first movies (STONEHENGE, SPAIN, ELIZINA STOMPS THE YARD, and WHEN CLINTON LIED NO ONE DIED) were done with a tiny camera (Sony Cybershoot W-5), and after falling from my kayak into Moro Bay and ruining my camera, I used a Cybershot T-700. But for projects that required a resolution that could be shown on a larger screen, I upgraded to a Sony HC7 and
at that time I also upgraded to Final Cut Pro6. Seven years later and after completeing IT TAKES ALL TYPES (a documentary feature about the experiece, strength and hope of recovery from addiction), I now have a new APPLE editing bay, upgraded to Final Cut ProX, and am purchased a new professional grade Sony video camera. FINDING OUR VILLAGE was completed with the old editor and was done for the Los Angeles LGBT Center (a documentary about seniors coming of age before Stonewall and the advent of Gay Pride). It played at the Renberg theater in Los Angeles and was used as a kick off for the Gay Pride celebration on Hilo, Hawai'i in July 2016. Since then I completed REWAKENED a short political art film that won prizes at film festival around the world, and MEADOWLARK (a musical short) which also won several prizes in film festivals.