What Documentaries Mean to Me...

Most of what my company does involves documentary films.  There is a great truth behind these types of projects that intrigues me to make more of them.  It is the wonder of finding new answers to new or old questions and begin to share with the public what I can find.  We did this in my award winning film BATS: THE LAST FLIGHT as we attempted to find answers to what was killing over 97% of the bat populations on the Eastern Seaboard States....It was a project that took close to two years to film as I followed members of the Department of Enviornmental Conservation through their treks to tag bats and find answers to the killing spree that has been taking place.  The project was just one example of what documentaries mean to me as I use these production moments to find answers to questions that either plague or challenge our society with answers that can only be supplied within a specified amount of screen time.  BATS was a project that took me on an adventure through the upper Adirondacks of New York State and helped me draw some conclusions of my own to what was killing the bats but it also gave me an opportunity to meet and share special moments with a select group of enviornmentalists that wanted to preserve caves and bats.  It was only ironic only to learn later on that these enviornmentalists or cavers were the ones helping to spread the disease that was killing the bats.  These ironies are what I enjoy most about making documentary films and learning what the consequences can lead to when you find the truths in the films that you produce.  In each project that I tackle there comes a moment in time when you come face to face with the truths that you're trying to find answers to and it is at that moment in time when you learn something new about the topic matter you've chosen to explore and bring to the public in the form of a documentary.  I've been blessed with having the chances to be able to explore what I've enjoyed most about making films and not having to be led by an editors choices.  To this I'm grateful and my hopes are to continue making films that find answers to questions that intrigue audiences and educate people into the truths that lie out there.  I have always believed that one person can make a difference and through my work I continue to live by this addage and make films that will have answers to questions that we might all have some doubts about doing it in a way that is not preaching a set of values or trying to dictate an edict to the choir.  I hope my work will inspire viewers to find more of their own answers and let them decide on their own in a way that is fair and balanced.  The journey continues....