On January 27, 2017, an executive order was issued by President Trump, suspending entry into the U.S. for citizens of seven countries: Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. The next day, Leslie Olson from I Am Iowa reached out to me to see if there was a way we could elevate the voices of Iowans who have ties to these countries. We filmed over the next few days, and within a week we had a short we called Banned Together ready to be screened at a community event.

While I was still a very fresh filmmaker in 2017, I am so proud of what we created that week. I learned early on of the privilege of being a storyteller and presenting an audience with the gift of listening to another person’s story.