In 2007, MacGregor Thomson, an MFA candidate at the University of Ohio, contacted me about doing an experimental documentary with me as the subject. After filming me filming in Upstate New York, MacGregor decided that he needed to use clips from some of the 300+ hours of video that I had shot for the Upstate Girls project in addition to the stills.

Six months later, MacGregor had digitized all the footage, and edited a trailer of the film he hoped to make.

I watched it, and immediately shot back an e-mail saying I loved it, but he forgot to include me in my biography. MacGregor told me that even though I am not seen in the film, my presence and my voice were there, and I verbalized the questions that the audience might be thinking when they watched the film. We decided that we would work together to produce a series of mini-documentaries, each devoted to one of the young women that I met in Upstate Girls. The amount of footage and the complexities of teenaged years dictated this output instead of a single documentary.

 

See a trailer from the movie about:

Kayla & DJ Dana Lorie Billie Jeane & Rosanne

We're in production now and actively seeking funding.

View trailers from the series here.