A Thankful Update
And an Amazing Sound Bite from David Simon (Creator of HBO's The Wire)
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! We’re about four-and-a-half months into post-production for “A Banner Year,” and everything is coming together! We’re really excited about how the documentary is forming and can’t wait to get it out into the world. I found an amazing soundbite from my interview with HBO Wire Creator (and former Baltimore journalist) David Simon, but first…
I have a lot to be thankful for:
Annette Porter and the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund for accepting “A Banner Year” into the Editor-in-Residence pilot program and funding the editing process.
Adam Evans, my editor, for being able to see my vision and make it his own, being a great story development partner and an amazing voice of reason.
My production crew, Alex Glass, Alanna Delfino, Mike Schuh, Krishnan Vasudeven, Ethan Cannistra, and Sinunu Bah, for the incredible help getting shots I couldn’t get.
Keniera Wagstaff, our production assistant and co-producer. She just graduated and needs a job, so hire her!
Our Saul Zaentz mentors, Paul Crompton and Richard Henkin, for the fantastic advice.
Gene Deems for all of his support (emotionally and financially) and brainstorming!
Emily Sullivan, Julie Scharper and Jessica Calefeti for letting me invade their personal lives with a camera in addition to their work lives.
Kimi Yoshino, Bob Cohn, Imtiaz Patel, and Stuart Bainum for allowing me to film in the Banner.
Everyone at the news organization for putting up with my cameras for more than a year.
My bosses at Merrill, Dean Rafael Lorente, Associate Dean Alex Pyles and Former Dean Lucy Dalglish for giving me the space and support to work on this.
And of course, thanks to my wife Elisha (and kid) for putting up with my schedule on this. I appreciate every time I’ve called you last minute to switch up our schedules because a shoot has gone longer than I planned.
Anyone who’s helped contribute financially to this documentary: I couldn’t have done it without you.
We’re in a great place right now, but we’re still raising money for post-production. We are applying for grants for hiring a composer, color grading, sound mixing and distribution. If you’d like to contribute, you can do so through our fiscal sponsor (a 501(c)3), Film Independent:
Thanks again to everyone who has contributed so far! A very special thanks to Gene Deems and David Lauricella.
I’ve been going back through our sit-down interviews and I found an amazing sound bite. It may not make it into the final documentary, but it’s too good not to share:
Thank you for subscribing, reading, and contributing to my film. Happy Thanksgiving and have a happy holiday season!






Amazing to see how far everything has come. Well done, sir.