I am the director and producer, working alongside two outstanding Associate Producers:  A. Dean Bell and Kurt Ossenfort.

 

BLIND TRUST: LEADERS & FOLLOWERS IN TIMES OF CRISIS garnered the Gradiva Award given by the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis for furthering the practice of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. 

 

I hold a doctorate in Performance Studies from New York University with a focus on theater and psychology.  During my academic research I discovered Professor Volkan's work and was captivated by his understanding of shared and unmourned injury, and how historical trauma is passed down through generations. 

 

I contacted Prof. Volkan while he was Director of The Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction at the University of Virginia's School of Medicine and went to hear his team speak.  They described their work in the Baltic regions at a time when Estonia and Latvia were becoming newly independent.  Sitting in the poorly lit lecture hall I thought these ideas are timely in our age of political polarization, globalization, and migrant crisis and deserve amplification through cinematic narrative.  

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I also write a column for psychologytoday.com on group psychology, The Me in We.

 

HERE is an early interview I did with Prof. Volkan, during production of the film.