Peripheral Vistas

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  in  Lynwood  at  Lynwood  High School.

After  many  years  I  went  back  to school  to  learn  about

computer  programming  and  began  working  on   projects

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 I completed  IT TAKES ALL TYPES,   a  documentary  feature  about  the experience, strength and hope of recovery from addiction and which played in New York City and in Los Angeles at the REEL RECOVERY Film Festival. I got a standing ovation from the sold out house. I now have a new APPLE editing bay, upgraded  to Final Cut ProX, and do work with my iPhone, a Sony Cybershot DSC-RX100, and a Sony PXWZ150 Camcorder that shoots the most incredible depth of field as well as the many other needs of a professional camera.

 

The last movie I completed with that old editor was FINDING OUR VILLAGE, a movie 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 have completed MEADOWLARK (a musical short by Stephen Schwartz performed by Eddie James) that received several national film festival awards, REWAKENED (a political artistic short film that received multiple international film festival awards), and THETORTOISE WHISPERER (which premiered at the Raleigh Studios in Hollywood and was accepted at four film festivals). 

 

You can see samples of my work by clicking on the link for AWARDS, FILM FESTVALS, SCREENINGS, MOVIES, and/or MUSIC VIDEOS.