About
I’m a documentary filmmaker from Maryland. I work in long form. My films are about people who lived through something the historical record has been quick to summarize and slow to listen to.
The work
My feature documentary, The Path of the Shadows (El Camino de la Sombra), follows Carlos Mauricio, a Salvadoran civil war survivor who was abducted from a university classroom in 1983 and held for nine days. Carlos spent the rest of his life telling the story to anyone who would listen, in whatever language was needed. I picked up the camera in 2008. I produced the film in 2018.
Before El Camino, I recorded Holocaust survivor testimony for an ongoing private archive. The interviews are held in trust with the families who agreed to them. A short companion piece, with consent, is in development for 2027.
I have also filmed the live D.C. concert of Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy, the Nicaraguan singer and former Sandinista revolution songbook contributor, and the 2009 FMLN electoral victory celebration in Maryland — the night the former guerrilla coalition’s diaspora gathered to mark its first presidential win in El Salvador.
Where I’ve been lately
Recent travel and research — Ikaria, Greece (the Karimalis family kept the tradition of small-scale, biodynamic viticulture alive on a hillside above the Aegean), and Bellagio on Lake Como. Both visits were research trips for short-form work in progress.
Things I love
- Nueva Canción — Mejía Godoy brothers, Silvio Rodríguez, Mercedes Sosa.
- Cumbia, especially the Salvadoran and Colombian variations.
- Long walks. Long interviews. The way conversations get useful in the third hour.
- The Spanish present subjunctive, which is the most generous tense in any language I have studied.
- Used bookstores, especially the ones in college towns.
How to reach me
For press, collaboration, or speaking, please email mills0451@yahoo.com. I respond personally and I am genuinely interested in what you have to say.