Premiere on Capitol Hill

Thoughts on our recent documentary short, its premiere on Capitol Hill, my return to D.C. as an independent journalist, the state of journalism, and the future.

Wrote most of this on the plane home after our film premiere in D.C.

Late last year I applied for a documentary film incubator based in Washington D.C. founded by Michael Pack, whose films include Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words. He was the first Senate-confirmed pick for CEO of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) under President Donald Trump during his first term. He has also served as president of the Claremont Institute and in different capacities at the National Council of the Humanities under President Bush as well as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Michael founded this incubator in 2023 to help develop young emerging documentary filmmakers interested in story-driven projects. It’s a family business; his son Thomas is the director of the program. 

Applying was competitive. Michaela and I pitched several ideas, all in the same general vein of journalistic cultural pieces set in the American West. They liked a pitch about a story that highlights the friction in my home community between cowboys and cannabis, a murder victim caught in the crosshairs, worlds colliding in a shocking unsolved case that shook my community to the core and left all of us more unsettled than we wanted to admit.

As a senior in college I applied for a journalism school program in D.C. and was accepted as the only editorial intern selected for the 2012 election season at The Washington Times. Complete with a brand-new “professional wardrobe” that I purchased at Goodwill, I set off for the big city to begin my career as a political journalist.