“ What I love about the work I have done in my life is that it has allowed me to enter so many worlds I would never have known. As a filmmaker I travelled and filmed in Tibetan monasteries, Federal prisons, schools and Native American reservations. I met and worked with people from all walks of life and was able to share their amazing stories with audiences everywhere.

In 2017 when I shifted my focus from filmmaking to writing – screenplays, non-fiction and poetry, I found that I was still entering different realities through memory, through observation and interactions. The difference is now the media is words. Love for the world I live in and the beings I share it with is still central to my work and I hope now to be able to share my writings with readers everywhere.”

“Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.” —Wumen Huikai

I was born, post WW II in Washington DC and started traveling at the age of four when my father began his career in the Foreign Service. From then on we kept moving – in the first 10 years we lived in London, Paris, Madrid. I developed the ability to adapt to just about anything.

I tried college, but it was the 1960’s and after tuning in and turning on, I dropped out and went to India where my parents were stationed. Then, after graduating in 1972 from the London Film School, I met Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and began my life as a Buddhist and a filmmaker. Within three years, I was also a wife and mother.

From 1975-85 I was part of Centre Productions, a film company created by Trungpa Rinpoche based in Boulder, Colorado. At Centre I worked on projects from Atta Boy dog food commercials to Lion’s Roar and completed two films of my own – What Can I Tell You, a portrait of 5 generations of Italian-American women which won a Gold Medal at the 1978 American Film Festival and Nicholas and the Baby, a sibling preparation film starring my family which became the inspiration for sibling preparation classes across the country. During that time I received a Colorado Council of the Arts Creative Fellowship in Media.

Cast and crew of Grandfather Sky — Cast and crew of *Grandfather Sky*

With the students at La Causa Youth Build

Traveling with Tsoknyi Rinpoche in Nangchen

In 1985, I started Chariot Productions (later Chariot Videos) and for the next 32 years produced/directed/wrote/edited and distributed films and videos including: Song of the Open Road, a portrait of a composer living with AIDS; Children of Wind River, a PBS documentary set on the Wind River reservation; and Grandfather Sky, a short drama filmed on the Navajo Reservation for Native American Public Television and KAET/Arizona PBS.

My bread and butter during the years from 1989-2005 were educational videos on alcohol, drugs, violence, gangs, and guns produced for Discovery Education. I spent many hours in juvenile prisons, continuations schools, and group homes interviewing remarkable young people who changed my view of the world forever. The series Violence Inside/Out and Alternatives to Violence became part of statewide violence prevention curricula in Colorado and California. Ending the Cycle of Violence: From Murder to Forgiveness and Extreme Consequences: The Reality of Prison Life are still in distribution.

In 2005, I changed my focus to films on the Dharma starting with Blessings: The Tsoknyi Nangchen Nuns of Tibet and followed by When the Iron Bird Flies: Tibetan Buddhism Arrives in the West. Both films were Chariot Productions/Pundarika Foundation co-productions.

In 2010 I moved to Oakland, California and began studying and practicing with Anam Thubten. In 2013, he ordained me as a teacher.

I retired from video production in 2017, moved back to Colorado and began to devote my time to writing.

In 2019 I created Chariot Press and since then have published three poetry collections, Hello Honey: Eighteen Poems from the Path, Whoosh - Stripped Bare and Who Knew? – 23 Poems on Aging. In October 2020 & January 2021 I taught two virtual Writing and Contemplation retreats hosted by Tara Mandala Retreat Center.

I am writing a memoir with the working title of A Tree With My Name On It: Two Years in the Wet Mountains.

My screenplay Miss Bird and Mountain Jim was selected as a semifinalist in the 2018 Scriptalooza Script Competition.