in 1997, platforms like YouTube and Vimeo that allow filmmakers direct access to their audiences didn’t exist.
“I went to Northern [Illinois University] and didn’t like it. I was like, ‘Okay if these people aren’t going to pay for me to go to film school, I’ll pay for it myself,’” she recounted. “I left Northern and went to Columbia College. It was so financially hard being a 19-year-old trying to pay for college, so I ended up dropping out of Columbia.”
“I was just always asking people to help,” she said, laughing. “People were always willing to help because, back then, making a movie was exciting. For screenings, I’d just ask people, ‘Hey, can I show my trailer?’” “I took advantage of those opportunities to work with the park district teaching theater to also showcase my films. I was also able to attract a potential investor who came to see a play I wrote called,” she said. “I was able to raise money from people coming in to see the play to actually make my first official film, which was [of the same name as the play]. I distributed that film by buying a whole bunch of VCRs and I’d make tapes. I would go to Kinkos to make the covers for the tapes.