Sarah Moshman’s films about strong & complex women uplift, inform & inspire - Hosted by Heather Lenz

Our special guest today is Sarah Moshman, an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and TEDx speaker whose work has been featured on Netflix, PBS, Upworthy, Marie Claire, CNN, and Good Morning America. Sarah has directed and produced 3 feature-length documentaries: The Empowerment Project: Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things, Losing Sight of Shore, and Nevertheless. She has also directed several narrative shorts including Unbound and A Mother is Born. Sarah is dedicated to telling stories that uplift, inform and inspire as well as showcase strong and complex female role models on screen. Sarah is honored to be the Artistic Director of the non-profit arts and filmmaking organization Look what SHE Did! and the leader of their newest filmmaking program for women over 30: Look what SHE’s Doing! Today we’ll discuss her career and focus on her documentary, Losing Sight of Shore.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Love So Radio.

SPEAKER_04 0:13

Hi and welcome to the Art of Film Funding. I'm your co-host, Claire Capan, along with Carol Dean, author of the best-selling book, The Art of Film Funding. Carol is also the founder and president of From the Heart Productions and the host of this show. Today we are joined by our guest host, filmmaker Heather Lenz, best known for directing and producing the Sundance documentary, Kusama Infinity. Our special guest today is Sarah Moshman, an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and TEDx speaker, whose work has been featured on Netflix, PBS, Upworthy, Marie Clare, CNN, and Good Morning America. Sarah has directed and produced three feature-linked documentaries: The Empowerment Project, Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things, Losing Sight of Shore, and Nevertheless. She's also directed several narrative shorts, including Unbound and A Mother Is Born. Sarah is dedicated to telling stories that uplift, inform, and inspire, as well as showcase strong and complex female role models on screen. Sarah is honored to be the artistic director of the nonprofit arts and filmmaking organization, Look What She Did, and the leader of their newest filmmaking program for women over 30, Look What She's Doing. Today we'll discuss her career and focus on her documentary, Losing Sight of Shore.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Well, thank you so much, Claire, for the lovely introduction and thanks, Sarah, for joining us today. We really appreciate you taking time out of your schedule. For anyone who hasn't seen your film, Losing Sight of Shore, can you please tell us what it's about in your own words? Sure.

SPEAKER_05 2:22

Well, hello, Heather. Thank you so much for having me on your fabulous show. Losing Sight of Shore is a film about four women who got in a rowboat, a pink 29-foot ocean rowing boat, and rowed across the entire Pacific Ocean from America all the way to Australia, over 8,000 miles. And so it's a story about perseverance and the power of the human spirit.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Yes, it's really incredible what they accomplished. I'm wondering how you connected with the ladies in the film. And also maybe you could tell a little bit about what, you know, they were they were working um towards to raise funds for.

SPEAKER_05 3:04

Yeah, so um the crew is called the Coxless Crew, and in terms of normally in a river rowing boat, there's a Coxwain, so this is the ocean rowing boat. So they were called they called themselves the Coxless Crew, and it was a team of four women in the boat at any given time. Uh the team lead is an incredible woman named Laura Penhall, um, and all these women were from the UK and South Africa. And I connected with them actually through someone emailed me about them. I got like sort of a life-changing email in January 2015. You know, most emails are not life-changing, but this one was. Um, this blogger in the UK, her name's Fiona Tatten. She emailed me because she knew about my first feature documentary, which is called the Empowerment Project, as mentioned in the intro. And so this woman knew, you know, I cared deeply about telling women's stories, trailblazing women, pioneering women, you know, women who are making history. So she sent me this very innocent email, hey Sarah, I just heard about these four women. They're called the Coxville's crew. They're gonna get in a rowboat and row across the Pacific Ocean. I thought you might want to know about it. It was all this very like, let me just drop this little golden ticket in your lap. Um, and I really had never heard of ocean rowing, like I can't underline that enough. I was so not a rower or, you know, really a sporty person. I'm athletic, but I'm not like super into sports at all. Uh, but I was just blown away. I thought, wait a second, what's happening? Who are these women? Why are they doing this? Who would put themselves through this? And so the very next day I I set up a Skype with um Laura of a team lead and Natalia Cohen, one of the other rowers on the team, with no expectation. I thought, you know, maybe they just want to know what GoPro to buy. I don't know. How can I help? Surely someone else is telling this story, right? Um, but no one was. And it was only three months later that they were gonna be leaving, and I thought, wow, okay, I have no idea how I'm gonna pull this off, but it would be such a tragedy for no one to help them tell their story for them to just have a couple GoPro cliffs on the other end of this. Um and so even though I didn't know how I was gonna figure it out, I knew that I wanted to tell their story and I would I would find a way. So uh three months later, I was standing on the dock in San Francisco at the Presidio Yacht Club at three o'clock in the morning because of tides with my very, very, very small crew, and we were filming them prepare and and eventually kind of push off from land and start their journey. So uh they were rowing in honor of breast cancer care as well as walking with the wounded, which were two UK-based charities for women. So they were raising money for these charities as they rode. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Yeah, it's quite an amazing story. Um so in addition to being the writer, director, and producer in the film, you were also a cinematographer. And um, since these women were often far from land and alone, I'm guessing they did do some of the film filming, as I guess you've already alluded to a little bit. Um, and I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about how you approached shooting the film, um, you know, including involving these ladies and the drone photography, which is incredible, and just all of it.

SPEAKER_05 6:17

Yeah, so this is a bit of a logistical puzzle because even if I had wanted to be with them on the boat, which Heather, I didn't, um I until the end, by the way, by by the end, I was ready to trip somebody and like get a spot. I was so inspired. But um at the beginning, there was absolutely no room for another person. And to be very clear to the audience, like there was no follow boat with them, no camera boat, no coast guard, like they were totally alone, no motor, no sail. Like these are this is a woman-powered boat, two of them rowing at any given time. They rowed two hours on, two hours off for 24 hours a day. I mean, this is absolutely an incredible feat of endurance and perseverance and strength. Um, so I couldn't have gone if I wanted to, so I thought, okay, I need to empower them to be storytellers. And none of them were filmmakers or storytellers. Natalia had some experience in photography, so she was like my main liaison on the boat. So it's sort of I'm credited as director of photography on land, and she is director of photography at sea. So I bought them um with my own money. I, you know, had very little time to fundraise, so I I invested a lot of my own money in this project at first, which was you know very scary, very entrepreneurial. They tell most filmmakers not to do that, but I just had no other option and I believed so deeply in in them and what they were doing. So I bought them um the Sony FDX um one hundred. It's like a very easy to use, but but 4K camera, so they could kind of pop open the LCD screen and get a great image quality. It was 4K compressed so that the files weren't too large. Um and then I bought them a little like Sennheiser microphone to go on the top so that the sound would be pretty good. I didn't want to mess with lavalier microphones or anything too complicated. I wanted to make it very easy for them to just pick up the camera and start telling their story. And then, of course, we had several GoPros and different attachments and accessories that they could put the GoPro in different spots on the boat. So we sort of had the the Sony camera was like our confessional cam, if you will, where they mostly used it inside the cabins. There were two cabins on the boat, very small, but they would that's where they would sleep and eat and make their own water. Um and then the GoPros were more for outside. And if it wasn't, if the weather wasn't bad, they could bring the Sony out um onto the where they were rowing, but it wasn't even a waterproof camera. So so I taught them how to use the cameras and the microphones, I got them hard drives, but they were like a fully self-sufficient little production studio on the boat. Um, but the challenge really as for me as a director is you know, I'm 8,000 miles away or I'm 5,000 miles away, depending on where they were in the world. How do I make sure that they're opening up to the camera? Like they would, in the very first leg of the journey, they would speak to the camera about, you know, excuse all the all the nautical puns, but all the surface level things, you know, they would say the wind is this and the water is this, and we've rode 10 miles today, you know, we saw a whale, like all that stuff is great, but how do we get to the next layer? You know, who are these women? Why would they sign up for this journey? What are they hoping to get out of it? And how are they gonna react when they can't escape, when they have a conflict, when they face four-story waves, you know, what that's the story. So to me, that was the biggest challenge as a director. So basically the way it would work is they blog every day, which was really amazing. They had like a sliver of internet on the boat, and they would write their experiences that day, and they took turns. So 257 days at sea, 257 blog posts, so never missed a day. And excuse me, um, then I could read that blog and I could see where they were in the world on their GPS tracker, and then I could email them interview questions and say, Hey, Emma, another one of the rowers was Emma, Emma Mitchell, and I would say, Hey Emma, you know, you mentioned in your blog today that you're struggling. Can you tell me more about that? Here's five questions to go with that. Because just because they blogged about it on the boat doesn't mean it was captured on camera, and that's sort of like the golden rule of filmmaking, right? Just because it happened doesn't mean it was captured properly on the camera. So that was the biggest challenge is me getting them to trust me as their filmmaker, but also for them to treat the camera like it was me on the boat. And that's really what happened over the course of nine months. They ended up to be on the boat for nine months, and they would stop on land along the way. There was a three-stage row here from California to Hawaii, Hawaii to Samoa, and Samoa to Australia. Um, but yeah, that was really the journey is getting them to open up and become storytellers and not be afraid to pick up the camera even in the worst times, you know. So that's that's how it worked on the boat. And then I was there on land every time they stopped, which was an incredible opportunity to have this front row seat to this life-changing and record-setting journey. And I would get on a boat of of uh my own, I would rent a captain or rent a boat. And me and uh Tony Humphreys, their shore support, we would get on that boat and go out and meet them when they were about six hours offshore. Um, and then we would either bring a drone operator with us on that boat, or a drone operator would film from land to where they were as they came in. So yeah, the film is really a combination of air, land, and sea. Every time they were on land, I was there interviewing them, filming them, trying to pick up the pieces of the story. When they were on the boat, they were really the storytellers, and then all of the drone footage helps bring it all together to show that scale. Like this this boat is 29 feet long, it weighed one ton, but it looks so tiny in this massive ocean, and I really wanted to show that scale with the drone photography. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Yeah, well, you did an incredible job. That's so um fortunate that they were doing the the blogging, as you mentioned. So you had a, you know, an idea of what was happening every day, but nevertheless, you would have been receiving the footage um, you know, all at once when they came to shore periodically and seeing you know, weeks and of footage all at once. Were you ever surprised? Is there anything in particular you were super surprised by that you saw in the footage?

SPEAKER_05 12:33

Oh my gosh. Um, absolutely. I mean, it's it was hundreds of hours of footage. Um I felt so grateful to have this, you know, view of their journey that truly no one else has. Like I they we all joke that I was like, you know, another member of the team, um, even though I wasn't on the boat. Um but yeah, all the wildlife they saw, the waves they faced, you know, just I just couldn't believe they're really out there. You know, it just felt so abstract. You're watching this like GPS tracker and you're reading about their experience. But I would, when I was on a boat and I would go out and meet them offshore, and I'd see this tiny pink dot on the horizon, like through my lens, I just would start weeping. I mean, it was just so unbelievable. And I live in Los Angeles, so I could even go to the Pacific Ocean and sort of look out and be like, are you kidding me? Like they're really out there every day, every two hours? Like, how are they not saying this is a nightmare and turning around? Like, I just couldn't believe it. So um, what a privilege it was to watch all that footage and then try to shape the story. You know, how do I do this story justice? How do I make sure it's not 90 minutes about rowing? You know, how do I make sure that this is compelling and entertaining and interesting and emotional and that people would want to watch it? So it was a it was a huge challenge sifting through all that footage and finding the story, but um, but what a privilege it was as well. And so, yeah, they faced everything, everything you can possibly imagine. They faced, including like kind of their inner demons, you know, their inner conflict, how how what a journey of self-discovery. And this is before the pandemic, this was 15 to 2016, um, but they knew what it meant to be isolated more than most humans on Earth. Um, in fact, it kind of felt like they were astronauts. By the time they got back, it really kind of felt like they were astronauts who had been to the moon. Because no one really knew what they had gone through and they were totally isolated on Earth. In fact, when they were rowing between Hawaii and Samoa, not a lot of freight goes through there. There's not a lot of ships at all. It's really like by the equator. Um, and apparently their boat was closer to the International Space Station at times than to any other human on Earth. Like it's like the most isolated you could possibly get, I think, on planet Earth. So what a profound journey they were on. And then for me to just be sort of like dry in my office watching their footage, like with popcorn, being like, This is crazy. Um, so yeah, it was it was wild.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Yeah, I mean, watching people overcome obstacles is always fascinating. And you mentioned some of them, like the giant waves and the fact that they were only sleeping two hours at a time and then rowing two hours, you know, day after day. Um also there was intense heat, um, there was motion sickness, there were food shortages, all of these things. And I wonder, was there ever a point where you worry that maybe, even though these ladies were, you know, totally athletic and determined and everything, but did you ever worry that maybe they weren't properly prepared for some of these obstacles?

SPEAKER_05 15:40

Uh, sure. I mean, I I wouldn't even say properly prepared. I think they had trained for years before the journey began, and they had the best shore support in Tony Humphreys. So it wasn't so much that, but I certainly worried every single day that they wouldn't make it because of the elements. Like, you know, the ocean can be such an unforgiving environment for boats, for people, for sailors, for any kind of you know, vessel. So the and to think about this tiny 29-foot pink roche ocean rowing boat, and no man or woman team of four had ever rode this route and all this way. So, you know, little old me, I'm just like the filmmaker being like, this is interesting, I want to help capture this story, but I certainly have absolutely no institutional knowledge at this time of if this is even possible. So, of course, oh my gosh, every day it was like, is this gonna happen? It was like the biggest risk of my life and my career, and I wasn't even on the boat. So, um, no, it was a constant worry for their safety, of course, you know, just for the film that I was making. Um, but I I guess I believed in my heart that even if something did go wrong, that that would also be worth capturing and a story worth telling. Believed they believed in themselves so much, so it made me believe in them and it made me believe in myself. Like I think what they accomplished still reverberates in my life every day. You know, like I can think about challenges I'm facing now, and I think about them out there in the Pacific, and I think about just keep going, you know, just keep growing, just get through the next two hours. You know, it's a lot like I'm a mom as well, I have two kids. Like I thought about them a lot going through like the newborn phase when you're sleep deprived and you're exhausted, and uh it's just like one foot in front of the other, that idea of just like keep going, keep going, keep going. And then, you know, after a while you look back and you're like, wow, look how far I've come. So yeah, the worry for them was was constant. And it's it's it makes it that much sweeter that spoiler alert for the audience, they made it all the way to Australia and achieved their greatest dream and and set two world records in the process. In fact, you know, it's 2024, no one has even come close to touching their their record uh at this point. Um it just it's su it's a miracle. All of this is like such a miracle that it happened and that there's a film on the other side of it, and that the film has done so well, and that so many people have watched it and and loved it. So it's it just makes me smile every day that that's all that that all really happened.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Yeah, it's amazing. Films about athletes pushing the limits and putting themselves into situations like this that could have devastating consequences really are becoming increasingly common. Um, for example, Free Solo is a film a lot of people have seen. Um, do you have any advice for filmmakers about what to consider when making this kind of film, both for the well-being of your subjects and also the filmmaking team?

SPEAKER_05 18:34

Yeah, I mean, it's so much risk. You have no idea what's gonna happen. So I think going into it with your with your eyes wide open and and belief and and and fallback plans and just knowing that things will shift and change. Like the Coxlist crew, the journey across the Pacific was supposed to take six months, it ended up taking nine, it was like an El Nino year, the tides and the currents were very different than they anticipated. I mean, nothing goes as planned, but I think that's such a good life lesson, too, right? You know, in in documentary, my dad always told my dad's a filmmaker as well, and he always told me if you make the film you set out to make, you did it wrong. And it's like, okay, great. It kind of frees you of like your plan and your your vision your vision and visual of what this film should be, it's going to evolve, and that's the magic, right? So I I think these films about extreme sports, extreme athletes are very popular, especially when something goes wrong or it's this big dramatic finish. So many people like to watch those just like the Olympics really just swept us away the last couple weeks. It's like the idea of someone working towards a very specific concrete goal for years and years or months and months or hours and hours and then achieving it is such a powerful, heroic story. I think we all identify with, and I think that's what people really love about losing side of shore. It's really, it doesn't matter what country you live in, watching these women achieve this is something we can all take inspiration from. So I've been very honored to be placed on many lists with Free Solo and films like it. You know, that's an Oscar-winning film and much bigger budget than we had, and yet I have found myself with Losing Side Ashore on many a top ten travel or or or extreme sport or um adventure documentaries, and I'm always just like perplexed by that. I'm like, oh wow, great. People are watching it. So um for other filmmakers, it's just having that belief and being able to pivot, being able to adapt is everything, and and also just going in very very clear intentions with subjects, with the participants, letting them know your intention and letting them know what kind of story you want to tell so that you're all on the same page. And then that way your athlete, your participant will really trust you and believe in you, and you're all making the same film. I think that was really important too.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

I'd love your dad's advice or wisdom that if you made the film you set out to make you did it wrong, because as you know, when you're applying for grants and things for these films, you're expected to really tell them like everything that's gonna happen and it has an average. Right? Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Um, so we have an idea of how long their journey was, but making the film is another whole beef. So I'm wondering how long did it take you to make the film? And you mentioned you did um self-fund part of it, but how did you, you know, get to the finish line in terms of funding?

SPEAKER_05 21:28

Yeah, so this film was oh my goodness, I I I pitched it every single day, endlessly. I mean, I had no shortage of people saying, Wow, that's such a great concept, or oh my god, what a story. You know, I felt like I had this golden ticket, and yet, because it was so much risk of will they make it or not, uh it was so hard to raise money for this film, you know, as they were still rowing or before they left. Um that was such a huge challenge. So I ended up putting in a lot of my own money. I applied Applied for so many grants, as you were saying, you know, talk about changing your treatment. I'm like, well, here's here are my characters, here's their route, here's what I think is gonna happen, you know, but it's happening right now in real time. Um I think I was rejected from nine grants before I got my first one, and that wasn't until we were in post-production. But I think I bought four grants for the film once we were in post, which was very helpful. Um I brought on investors, which was new for me, so I had to start a new LLC, you know, really treat this as a commercial entity, like with investors, you know, whole the whole the whole deal. So um I learned a ton and felt very entrepreneurial in making this film. Like I want people to see it, I want it to be shown on a global scale, I want to make money from it, I want, you know, the world to see this story. And so yeah, it was really a combination of all of that. Like donors. I never did a formal crowdfunding campaign, but I was kind of like always informally crowdfunding, if you will. Um, grants, investors, and then my own money. So it was and I never I never had a full budget from the start, like not at all. And I was pitching to production companies, distributors, sales agents, like the whole time. And nobody really gave me the time of day until they had made it. I got a grant from the Tribeca Film Institute, which was such an honor. It was$10,000 for their all access grant, which of course is great. But the better part of it was that they brought me to New York and I was in um post-production on Losing Side of Shore. So I knew they had made it. I had all the footage safe, backed up on like a million hard drives. So I felt so confident, and they set me up with all these pitch meetings. It was kind of like speed dating, but for distribution. And it was so wonderful because I got to meet with incredible companies and people and contacts, and and I was sitting there on my side of the table, like this is a once-in-a-lifetime story, they made it, you know. Um, and so that led to some more funding, but ultimately the best part of that was it led to my sales agent, which was the film sales company. And so I worked with them once the film was done. Um, again, you still you still have to be your own biggest cheerleader, your own biggest advocate the whole way through. It's not like they like wrote me a check or something. They're saying, like, okay, great, let us know when your film is done, and then we'll think about representing you. So you still have to, you know, beg, borrow, and steal to get across the finish line. So it was an independent project through and through. No celebrity executive producer, we did not get into Sundance, like none of that fancy stuff. We had nothing. Uh, but this sales agent really believed in the project. He had sold projects about extreme sports before is how he classified it. Um, and so when the film was done, I signed with them and I had no expectation. Like I just thought, I think the film is good, it's 92 minutes long, I'm really proud of it. Like, I told the story I wanted to tell, which, you know, on through my lens, through Sarah Moshman's lens, is gonna be very different, right, than any other filmmaker. For me, it was really about the women, it was really about the people and the power of the human spirit rather than about the journey itself and the technical aspects and the sport, you know, it was really more about the women. Um, and I didn't know if that would translate, permeate, if people would like it. But within um, I think a couple months, I didn't get into Sundance. It was the holidays of 2016, I really had no clue what was going to happen. And the sales agent I was working with pretty immediately got us a deal on Netflix worldwide. So I'm happy to report that the film premiered um May 1st, 2017, on Netflix worldwide in 190 countries. It was subtitled in 25 languages. It was just like the greatest possible dream for for me, for the women, the rowers, you know, it was everything I wanted for the film. Um, and I really love to share that with other filmmakers because it we all kind of fall in this trap of thinking you have to get into Sunday and have to win all these awards, and you have to have the fancy, you know, executive producer on board in order for your film to be like, quote, successful. And those things are great, and I would love to do those things, but this film was such a good example of like a good story win. Like it was just a good story, and so it's just been such a joy to share with people all over the world.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Amazing. Um, so I'm wondering in general, what do you find most enjoyable about filmmaking and what do you find most challenging?

SPEAKER_05 26:21

Um, you know, I truly enjoy the entire life cycle of a project like this, like with a feature documentary or a series. I just love the whole process because by the time it's over and you're sharing it with people, you really earned that m that moment, that glory because you shepherded it through the world. So of course there are like less fun parts, like the legal side, you know, having to wade through contracts. Fundraising is so hard, obviously. It's just, you know, especially for feature, independent feature documentaries, you're kind of clawing to to just raise enough money to get to the next phase. It's really hard to pay yourself during those times, which makes it very unsustainable. It's a really, really tough part of the journey in the fundraising, and I'd say the legal side, like the contracts and waiting for contracts and redlining contracts. But even that, like I it's a necessary part of the path, so I don't shy away from it. It's just one of my less favorite parts. Um, but I absolutely love being in production. I I love being behind the camera, working with cinematographers, capturing the story, like being out there and doing it, making it, being with people, like finding those little shots to get that perfect sound bite, you know, something you didn't expect, seeing the world, meeting people. I absolutely love that. But then the energy of post-production is a nice balance to that. Like that's so different than you're, you know, in a quiet office with one editor, probably, like Peter Seraphim, who I went to film school with, edited Losing Side of Shore. He's this wonderful person, and we had such a great time cutting this all together. It was like an embarrassment of riches with beautiful footage. It was like, should we have this gorgeous drone shot or this beautiful drone shot? It was so much fun to put it together, especially once they had made it. It felt like such a celebration. Like, okay, we did it. Hard part's over. Um, and then distribution and marketing are fun too in their own way. Like you did, you did the thing. And if you like your movie and you're happy to share with people, like, oh my goodness, it's the gift that keeps on giving. Like here I am talking to you about a movie that I made, oh my gosh, eight years ago now. Like, what a joy. I mean, it's just such a joy to have these films that live on that people take into their world and their lives and their hearts and they reflect it back to you. So yeah, I as you can tell, I have a lot of passion for the whole life cycle. If it's it's a project I believe in, I'm excited about, then I'm, you know, shooting out of bed in the morning, excited to get to my computer to like figure out the next steps, push it forward just every little bit each day. So um, yeah. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

It's great. But I love your enthusiasm for all of it. So you've made a career of telling stories um that elevate women. And I'm wondering when it became apparent to you that in our society these types of stories were really lacking and that we needed more of them.

SPEAKER_05 29:07

Yeah, I'd say in about 2013, I was um I moved out to Los Angeles in 2008, right after film school, and I was working in reality television. I worked on Dancing with the Stars for 10 seasons as a field producer. So I was shooting and interviewing at the celebrity dancer talent and learning a ton. I mean, that show was massive at the time, like 20 million viewers a week. So it was a great, a wonderful first job, first chapter of my time in LA. But I'd say around 2013, I just started feeling five years in, like, huh, okay. So I have these skills. I want to be, I want to go back to being a filmmaker. Like I miss making my own work. I was working on this massive show and I was like a tiny piece and a huge machine. And at that same time, I s I also started to kind of wake up. I'm like 25, 26 years old. Oh wow, like I'm turning on, you know, the radio, I'm reading a magazine, I'm going to the movies. Where are all the complex, you know, female role models, incredible women that are in my life? Why are they not being reflected on screens? Like, where are we where are we? Where are they? And it really started to dawn on me, like you can't be what you can't see is the saying. And I just started to feel like, well, I have some skills. Why am I waiting for someone else to hand me this opportunity when I can make this opportunity for myself? Um, and that sort of sense of empowerment and frustration with the way that women are over sexualized, objectified, or frankly just ignore it altogether. Like we're just not represented at a certain phase of life, certainly if you think about age, you know, after a woman on screen is like married or has a baby, like where is that existence in terms of professional success? So all of that was kind of coming together for me um around 2013. And so that's when I decided to make my first feature documentary, which is called The Empowerment Project, Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things. And that really that film is the answer to that, you know, that feeling inside of like, where are we? Where is our representation of real women, you know, not celebrities. I was working in a very like glamorous Hollywood side of the industry, and I thought, yeah, okay, but what about the real women who are out there breaking barriers and blazing trails and setting records and like making history that aren't, you know, celebrities? And so um, yeah, I set off on a road trip with four other female filmmakers, and we interviewed 17 inspirational women from all different career fields, like a pilot, athlete, astronaut, mathematician, biologist, fashion stylist, you know, Miss USA, you name it, we covered it. And that experience was just extremely transformational for me to really believe in my own power as a filmmaker to represent women on screen. And so ever since then, it's just been such a huge passion of mine, um, not only to the filmmaking side, but sharing it with young women. Like we ended up showing the empowerment project in schools and groups and organizations and Girl Scout troops and all over the world. Um, and some of the most meaningful moments for me were when like a high school girl would come up to us, Dana Cook and I, Dana Cook was the producer of the film, and they would come up and say, you know, I didn't even know women could be astronauts. And after seeing your film, I think I kind of want to be an astronaut. And it was like, oh my god, that's why we made it. This is amazing. So that was more meaningful to us than any award or accolade or like amount of views or clicks. Like that didn't really feel like much. But having that interaction with like a 16-year-old girl and like looking her in the eye and saying, Of course you can, you absolutely can go do it. Um, that was really gratifying to me. And that just proved it really codified to me the the power of media, and I can't be waiting around for someone else to choose me and tell me that I'm good enough to go make the media that I know I can create myself. So that's been also a big part of my journey. And the empowerment project, of course, led to losing sight of shore in in so many ways.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

So yeah. Super inspiring. So you're the artistic director for the nonprofit arts and filmmaking organization, Look What She Did, and the leader of their newest filmmaking program for women over 30. Look what she's doing. And I'm wondering if you could tell us just explain a little bit for people who may not know what the organization Look What She Did is, and also talk about the program you oversee.

SPEAKER_05 33:29

Absolutely. So an incredible woman, director, writer, um Julie A. Bear started Look What She Did about 10 years ago. And it's a nonprofit organization that is about storytelling for women we should not forget. So Julie and I are sort of intergenerational kindred spirits. We were both, when I was making the empowerment project, she was starting Look What She Did. Um, and so basically it's a website. You can go to lookwhatshead.com, and we have over 150 films in our collection. Each one is under five minutes long, and it's basically a storyteller, a woman in a casual environment, like a backyard, talking about a woman in history who sadly you probably never heard of, but you should not you should absolutely know her story. And so Julie and her friends started this organization to help tell more stories that we should never forget. And it's been 10 years now, and now the film collection, um, I was brought on about a year ago as the deputy director, and now I've been promoted to artistic director, which I'm so honored to be a part of this organization, alongside Julie and Deborah J.T. Padilla is our interim executive director. And now we're finding exciting ways to get that collection out to the world through distribution channels like Alexander Street, where we're able to share the film and un films and universities. Um we work just worked with Biz Magazine for Women's History Month. So we have like a whole series of our films featured on their site and all kinds of other exciting initiatives. So um, and then I've been had the privilege of starting my own program under that umbrella called Look What She's Doing. And basically it's a it's a program for women filmmakers over 30. We really want to redefine the word emerging. Like the word emerging is usually reserved for youth. There's all kinds of programs and initiatives that really like celebrate emerging women filmmakers, which is kind of code for under 25 or something. Um, but we started talking about how, wow, as women we're really truly emerging throughout our lives. Like we have so many chapters, we have so many pivots, we're really this like butterfly that is opening up throughout our life, and there's such a gap for women filmmakers over 30. Like if you haven't figured it out or you don't know if you want to have a career in film, I really wanted to create a space where we could have a cohort of women come together, learn camera, audio, lighting, and make their own look what she did short films within two weekends at Mount St. Mary's University. And it was an incredible first year. We did this in May 2024, and then I had 12 women in my cohort between the ages of 35 and 71, um, and everything in between. And it was just so magical to bring everyone together from all walks of life, all different parts of the industry, some women not in film at all, and really encourage them to find their artistic voice. And actually, coming up, we're gonna have an event on October 9th to celebrate those films at Mount St. Mary's University so you can come check out their work and and see what they're up to now. So, yeah, it's been wonderful working with Julie and Deborah as Look What She Did and helping to kind of preserve and prolong this legacy of women telling stories of other women throughout history.

SPEAKER_01 36:35

Yeah, I really encourage all of our listeners to check out the website for Look What She Did. The films are really amazing, and I've had the pleasure of hearing Julie speak, and you know, it's just so inspiring. And I absolutely love that you've made this program for women over 30 because, as you said, there's already so many um programs to support um, you know, younger filmmaking, younger filmmakers, which is also of course great, but um then at a certain point um some people start to feel excluded, so I'm happy you're doing this. And I'm wondering what advice you would give to first-time um filmmakers and also if there's any special advice you would give to um, you know, women filmmakers.

SPEAKER_05 37:16

Yeah, I mean, there's only so much, I would say there's only so much you can learn from a class, from a teacher, from a book. It's really about picking up the camera and getting started and like making mistakes, right? Like forgetting to record or not turning on your microphone or you know, wishing you had asked a different question. That's the best way to learn. So I would encourage any aspiring filmmaker, but especially for women, to just start to find your voice. Like what is the story that is in your heart that you feel like you need to tell, and how can you bring your unique point of view to telling that story, and no one can tell your story like you can, and really embracing that. Um I try not to compare myself too much to other filmmakers because it's just not I mean, it's just not productive, right? We all come to this from such different backgrounds and points of view, and so the older I get and the more films I've made, the more I'm just really embracing, oh, that's this project is for me. Like I'm gonna fight for this one rather than trying to be everything to everyone, you know. So I would just encourage any filmmaker to really sort of hone in and turn inward and figure out what is the story that only you can tell, and how do you want to tell it? And and it's worth telling, it's worth sharing, and just pick up that camera, exercise that muscle of interviewing someone, of filming B-roll, of the whole process, because that's the only way you're gonna learn. Um, and that's just been really useful for me. I've been making documentaries since I was 16. I'm 37 now, so it's been over 20 years, and I feel like I'm just I'm just I'm getting somewhere now. So it takes time. And and being a filmmaker is just like the greatest career I could have ever hoped for, even when it's so difficult. Like, don't get me wrong, there's so many tough days and tough moments and times I want to throw in the towel and just go get a quote regular job. But I can't ignore how much I've learned about myself, about the world through all of my experiences as a filmmaker, whether it's as a teacher, as a speaker, as a filmmaker, no matter what phase of production I'm in. Um it's just it's everything. You know, you're really like alive in the world as a filmmaker because you're not just doing one thing, you're doing a hundred things to bring people together around this story. So it should be something that really, really deeply, deeply matters to you. Because otherwise it's just kind of too hard. So yeah, absolutely. I I'm I'm a big fan of saying like go, do, pick up the camera, here's how to use it. Okay, take it and go. Go show us what you are.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

Yeah, that's excellent advice. And I'm wondering, could you share with us your social media handles, your website, um, you know, for your film, for yourself, if they're different, um, so that people could follow your career?

SPEAKER_05 39:58

Yeah, so I'm I'd say I'm mostly hanging out on Instagram. My handle is just my full name, S-A-R-A-H-M-O-S-H-M-A-N, Sarah Moshman. Same as my website, Sarah Moshman.com. Um that's a good place to get a hold of me as well. I'm on Facebook and I guess I still have a Twitter account, but I really never use it. Um I'm on LinkedIn as well, Sarah Moshman. And then Losing Side of Shore can be watched on iTunes, on I guess iTunes, you know, I'm sorry, Apple TV Plus, um, Amazon, uh I believe we're still on DirecTV, Tubi, there's all kinds of places to watch Losing Side of Shore. The Empowerment Project, if you want to check that one out, is also on Apple TV Plus and Amazon. Um and yeah, you can keep up with me. I'm uh usually posting stories about whatever phase of a project I'm in. So I'm happy to connect.

SPEAKER_01 40:50

Great. And um, are there um any new films you're working on that you would like to discuss? I know sometimes it's a delicate question, and sometimes depending on where people are at with things, they're secretive or sometimes they're yeah, I'm I'm always working on something.

SPEAKER_05 41:06

I'm uh, as mentioned in the intro, I'm working in the narrative space as well. So I've done two narrative short films. One is called Unbound, and it's based on a true story about the first mother in space, Dr. Anna Fisher. Um, and that short film I'm working towards turning into a feature with an incredible writer named Christina K. Moore. Um I have another short narrative film called A Mother Is Born, and that one's the first thing I've ever written myself, and that one's about the identity shift that comes with being postpartum. That one was very healing to make. Um I'm really grateful that it's in the world, and now I'm finding exciting ways to get that film to moms, you know, so that new moms can watch it and feel less alone. Um I have a very ex I have a couple of big projects pending. I can't say much about at this juncture, but um they're they're moving along in this very volatile marketplace that we're in. Things take a long time, but I am working towards bigger budgets and bigger platforms and wanting to tell bigger stories. Um, and it's so far so good. So we'll see. So I do a lot of short form work and long form, and I've always got kind of like five or so projects on my slate, so at at varying at varying stages.

SPEAKER_01 42:20

That's great. And is there anything that I failed to ask you that you would like to share with our listeners?

SPEAKER_05 42:27

Um, no, I could go on and on. I mean, we could have a whole separate chat about being a mom and a filmmaker or distribution. I kind of can dip my toe into everything, but I think we covered all kinds of stuff. If anyone wants to learn more, feel free to reach out.

SPEAKER_01 42:42

Great. Well, thank you so much, Sarah, for being so generous with all of your wisdom and experience and also for taking time out of your schedule to join us today. Oh, thanks for having me, Heather. Oh, you're welcome, and thanks everyone for listening.

SPEAKER_04 43:00

Now, in its second edition, Carol Dean's popular book, The Art of Film Funding, has 12 new chapters to cover all areas of film financing and how to avoid expensive pitfalls. Learn how to start with an idea and end with a trailer, how to make an ask for money. Create your story structure and your trailer, legal advice, fair use, successful crowdfunding, how to ask for music rights, and what insurance you can't shoot without. Available on Amazon under Carol Dean and at FromTheHeartProductions.com. I want to remind our listeners that David Rakelin is a brilliant and talented award-winning musician who scores films and can compose music for a trio or for a full orchestra. David is a very good friend to the independent filmmaker and comes highly recommended by From the Heart Productions. If you need music, To help tell your story, please contact him at DavidRakelin.com. That's David R-A-I-K-L-E-N.com. And Carol and I want to thank you for tuning in to the Art of Film Funding. Please visit our website at FromTheheart Productions.com. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. Good luck with your films, everyone.

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