#1: Can you describe your movie and why somebody should see it in less than 140 characters?

Wildlife crossings make highways safer for people and animals. The film profiles two different types of turtle crossings in the Midwest.

#2: What do you want the Borrego Springs Film Festival audience to know about your film that isn’t obvious from its title?

Animals need to move from place to place for food, shelter, and reproduction. When people think of wildlife crossings, they often focus on the spectacular examples built for large migrating animals. In Wisconsin and Iowa, they have a different challenge related to turtles. We examine both a retrofit crossing tunnel, performed during a two-lane highway resurfacing project, and a new four-lane highway that includes a built-in under-the-road crossing in its design, and how these crossings have made a difference.

#3: What is your movie making background? Tell us about yourself.

I have have been directing films with my wife and producer Tammy since the 1990s. Our company is called Fourth Wall Films and we are now based in Moline, Illinois. We previously lived in Los Angeles for 18 years where I worked for Sony Pictures and Tammy for Los Angeles Magazine. We normally focus our lens on Midwestern history stories such as "Villisca: Living With a Mystery", "The Barn Raisers", "Country School: One Room - One Nation", and the "Lost Nation: The Ioway" short series. We've also produced a couple of films on famous women with Midwestern ties in "Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon" (a co-production with McMarr, Ltd.) and "Becoming Harriet Beecher Stowe". Not long ago we completed our first docudrama "Sons & Daughters of Thunder." We currently have films number 21, 22, and 23 in various stages of production. "Over & Under: Wildlife Crossings" was partially funded by BeWildReWild and the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation. BeWildReWild is focused in finding sustainable ways to live, and in creating a wilder, more beautiful, more biologically diverse Mississippi River watershed.

#4: What was the biggest lesson learned in getting your film made?

This was our first opportunity to produce a film with an environmental theme. The first thing we learned is that filming wildlife requires patience. Our first trip to LaCrosse, Wisconsin produced only one turtle sighting. Our second trip a week later paid off in a big way. Turtles were on the move everywhere we looked. Watching the film now, it may look like we set up some of the shots with the turtles, but we didn't. We did get a call from a resident we met on our first trip and he said a turtle was laying eggs in this front yard. She became our "star" and we filmed her as she went about her business. When turtles decide to go somewhere, they don't move quite as slowly as you might expect! There are hundreds of turtles killed each year in this particular Wisconsin river-side neighborhood. That part was sad to see.

#5: What does the future hold for your film and you?

Just a month or so ago, the WQPT-PBS broadcast of "Over & Under: Wildlife Crossings" won a Mid-America Emmy. The film has been featured in several film festivals around the country. It's also being used by several environmental organizations for training purposes. Our hope is that "Over & Under" will continue to make viewers aware that the creative use of wildlife crossings saves money, as well as human and animal lives.

As for Fourth Wall Films, we are hard at work on the "Hero Street" multi-part series that profiles eight young Mexican-American men from a block-and-a-half long street in Silvis, Illinois. Six were killed in World War II and two in the Korean War -- more lost than from any other street in America. The street was renamed Hero Street in 1969. A film in that series, "Letters Home to Hero Street", was an Official Selection at a previous BSFF.