I have always wondered if the antidote to indifference is empathy. And I think my creative life has been an exploration of that thesis.

My earliest memories are of playing make-believe with my siblings in the woods behind our home in Alabama. Wearing crowns of kudzu, we journeyed from the shires of Middle Earth to the plains of Narnia, enchanted by experiencing the world as someone other than ourselves. That captivation has shaped my professional life, though eventually I stopped designing pillow forts and started designing buildings.

I received a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Virginia and a Masters in Architecture with High Distinction from the University of Michigan. After a decade working in architecture designing affordable housing, transitional shelters for refugees, and charter schools, I made a career shift into documentary filmmaking as a Director and Producer of REFUGE. It was 2017, and I felt like our country was ripping apart at the seams. Extremism of all kinds was on the rise, and our country was more polarized than we have been in my lifetime. So we set out to capture a story that could help us understand the roots of hate, and help us understand why this toxic ideology was resonating with so many Americans. We ended up capturing a leader in the KKK who finds healing from the people he once hated - a Muslim heart doctor and his town of refugees. 

My background in architecture has helped me understand that our cities are the physical manifestation of the forces that shape them. The architecture of our cities is the materialization of historical, geological, social, and economic forces. My experience in filmmaking has revealed the same to be true - our lived experiences point us towards larger systemic forces. Through filmmaking, I hope to continue exploring deeply intimate human stories that draw important connections between our lived experiences and the social and historical constructs that shape them.

Love, Your Birth Mom is a continuation of this inquiry. I am an adoptive mom, and in many conversations I have had about our adoption experiences, as the adoptive mom, I am cast as the hero, and my daughters’ birth moms are cast as the villains. Why am I perceived as being more deserving of my children than the women who gave life to them? These conversations have made me question our understanding of motherhood and our collective perception of women. What are the stories we are telling about women? Are they reflective of our lived experiences? And what are the cultural and systemic forces that bring about those experiences? Love, your Birth Mom will be a nuanced and human exploration of these questions, examined through the lens of navigating an unplanned pregnancy.

I will consider this film a success if viewers identify with the desperation of a mother who questions her ability to raise her child. Perhaps then we might dismantle the systems that have left so many pregnant women in this position in the first place.