In August 2015, I decided to get into radio and leave film behind. I took one last gig as a location sound recordist for an independent fiction film from award-winning director Kyle Henry and Carlos Treviño.

My last hurrah turned into a years-long collaboration and plunged me back into the world of cinema. When our beautiful baby Rogers Park finally came out in 2017, it became a New York Times Critic’s Pick and landed a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Long story short: My experience on set was so positive that I stuck around for the initial stages of editing. Kyle hired me for a few days until he could find a proper editor. A few days turned into a few weeks and eventually I became the editor of the film.

Rogers Park traces changes in the lives of two couples over the course of a year. It’s a slice-of-life film for grownups with tension, laughs, tears. And beautiful editing and sound, obviously.

From 2011 until about 2016, I was fortunate enough to work with the geniuses at Kartemquin Films (Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters). I cut my teeth there as an intern and served in a variety of roles on documentary productions. I was a sound recordist, associate producer, associate editor.

Here are a few of the projects I worked on:

’63 Boycott (2012-2016): A short film and multimedia project about the 1963 Chicago Public School Boycott. I helped build the website and later became the associate producer of the film. Directed by Gordon Quinn, the OG.

Hard Earned (2016): A documentary miniseries about people living on minimum wage. Produced by Al Jazeera America and winner of the 2016 duPont-Columbia University Award. I am credited as a field producer on this series and also served as location sound.

Radical Grace (2015): A documentary about radical nuns! This awesome film won a bunch of awards at fests like AFI and Hot Docs. Directed by the brilliant Rebecca Parrish. I was an assistant editor. Not a KTQ project, technically, but definitely associated.

F.O.R.C.E. (2015): A short advocacy piece I directed, produced, and edited for activist Eddie Bocanegra. This film helped get a law passed in Illinois sealing the records of non-violent felony ex-offenders from prospective employers.

Much love to my KTQ fam. They instilled with me a documentary ethos that I carry with me to this day. At Kartemquin, I learned that the most important relationship a documentarian has is with the people who they document, who have let them into their lives, and who are brave enough to stand witness.