Catching Up, Moving on

It’s been a few weeks since my last post, because quite a bit has happened recently.  Let me catch up, and start with a little history.

I moved to Idaho in 2007 to begin school (BYU-Idaho) as a Health Science major, with the intention of pursuing dietetics and/or Naturopathic Medicine.  Two years later I had a falling out with the institution and, subsequently, the culture of draconian conservatism that embraces this part of Mid/Northwest.

So I had my credits transferred to the equally affordable state school in Boise, where I picked up the slack and kept moving toward my degree.  Maybe Rexburg left a bad taste in my mouth, or maybe I’d changed my outlook on education, but by the Fall semester of 2011 I was burned out.  School became a tremendous burden, and the stress was disallowing me to progress in other was.  Important ways.  Key among those was as a filmmaker.

I’d spent the next 6 months working on setting up a funding vehicle for the documentary Eat Right, and making arrangements to interview & collect stories (hence Eat Right Stories).  Even though the pursuit of a Naturopath degree was no longer a priority, my original goal from six years ago is, and has always been, alive and well.

I feel like my whole “purpose”, if you will, is to educate people about the work of Dr D’Adamo.  To see his research and concepts become more widely accepted in the mainstream of medicine and culinary culture.  Documentary filmmaking would be a perfect way to achieve this, especially in this century when people are reading less and relying on audio/video forms of media.

Well, I’ve had to put the documentary on temporary hold, due to lack of funding.  During the recent struggle to get the movie financed and find a way to pay my bills, I received an opportunity that I could not pass on.  In late August I was offered a full-time position to work for D’Adamo Personalized Nutrition in Brooklyn, NY, where I would oversee the retail of Blood Type Diet supplements, patient scheduling, and marketing – which includes making videos.  It was really a dream come true.

Not bad news for the documentary, but quite the opposite.  This will allow me to actually start shooting and putting up teaser video clips for Eat Right.  Since so many of my interviews and contacts are in the NYC area, I’ll be able to produce parts for the movie without a budget, while taking care of my own survival.  And as the audience widens while these segments are being produced, I believe I will have a much greater chance of stumbling upon the right individual(s) with the fiscal allowance for completion of the feature film.

Needless to say, things have been going very well, both personally and professionally.  Of course it would have been nice if “Plan A” worked out, meaning I would be close to post-production and editing, with hard drive full of amazing footage, but regardless of the bumps and detours, I find that life always steers in the right direction, and we end up where we need to be.

Right now I have the work opportunity of a lifetime, living in a city that feels comfortable, surrounded by people with similar goals, interests, and priorities.  After all, the first step in this documentary making process was to get out of Idaho.  Now that I’m in New York, I feel an incredible energy, and renewed sense of creativity and excitement.

I can’t make any timeline predictions at this point, but I can tell you that I have an ever growing list of exciting ideas, and the connections and opportunities to make them happen.  So stay close and subscribe for the latest updates.

Lots of very cool things to come!