Today we’d like to introduce you to Allison Norlian
Hi Allison, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
If you had asked me a decade ago where I’d be in ten years, I would have never dreamed I would be where I am right now. A decade ago, I was a journalist, working in local television news as a reporter with the goal of moving up the ranks and one day becoming a reporter/anchor in Philadelphia or New York City. Filmmaking and screenwriting were not even in my subconscious.
I wanted to be a journalist since high school; a teacher recommended the profession after seeing my love for writing and advocacy for the disabled community. My sister is profoundly disabled, and I’ve been advocating for people with disabilities and other marginalized groups since I was a child.
But eventually, as I continued in the news industry, I dreamed of having more time and resources to tell complete stories—I dreamed of producing and creating a documentary.
Throughout the years, I would discuss this dream with a friend and fellow reporter, Kody Leibowitz, who I met at an internship in college; he had the same dream, too.
After moving to Los Angeles in 2018 for my husband’s career, I switched from working in television news to digital journalism and also got a job in communications. However, the pandemic started, and I was furloughed from that full-time job. In 2020, with nothing to lose, Kody and I finally decided to create our company to focus on documentary stories.
Our company is BirdMine, and we work to share the unheard stories of underrepresented communities to create a more compassionate, empathetic, and accessible world.
We began filming our first documentary, MEANDERING SCARS, in 2021 and are currently in post-production.
Then, in 2023, we also started working on narrative stories, including a short film I wrote and co-directed.
That short film, THIRTEEN, is on the festival circuit now and will soon have its Texas premiere at the Austin Film Festival.
Both films focus on the disability community.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Is anyone’s road ever smooth? There were definitely bumps along the way.
As I mentioned, my goal since high school had been to become a television reporter.
However, as the years passed and I continued in the news industry, I became unhappy and dissatisfied. I wanted to tell longer-form, more impactful stories, and I was exhausted from the news industry’s horrible grind and politics.
I knew I wanted more, but needed to figure out how to make it happen.
Once we moved to Los Angeles for my husband’s career, I decided to sort of ‘surrender’ to the universe. I worked at various places once we moved to LA, including as a Production Assistant at Judge Judy, an Associate Producer at her sister show, Hot Bench, at a nonprofit, and eventually an entertainment company. I also freelanced and produced digital journalism on the side.
Eventually, everything came to a screeching halt when the pandemic happened; I was furloughed and forced to re-evaluate my life.
And then my friend and now business partner Kody came knocking. He called to check up on me, and in the process, we decided to start BirdMine (something we spoke about over the years, but I didn’t fully believe we’d ever do).
Starting a company is no easy task, and making movies is not easy either, especially when your background is in something else.
Kody and I have had to ‘learn on the job’ and use our journalism skills to research and understand the world we’ve entered. We’ve encountered many roadblocks, including creative, educational, and financial, but since creating the company in 2020, we’ve managed to produce two films, including a short and full-length feature documentary.
I don’t think the struggle will ever end because it’s part of the process. There will always be bumps along the way. But I believe the trials and tribulations make the ending much sweeter.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My work as a journalist and filmmaker focuses on uplifting underrepresented communities, specifically the disability community. When I was a reporter/journalist in the news, I tried to share stories about the disabled community as often as possible, which resulted in me receiving a ‘Catalyst For Change’ award from the ARC of Virginia. I was also nominated twice for Emmy awards; one of those nominations was for an investigation I did into an assisted living facility that was mistreating disabled, elderly, and mentally ill patients.
Since becoming a filmmaker, I’ve co-created two films—a short and a documentary—both focused on the disability community.
THIRTEEN is a short narrative film inspired by real life—specifically, it’s a love letter to my mother and sister.
The film is about a mother fighting to have a Bat Mitzvah for her nonverbal, developmentally disabled daughter in a synagogue that refuses to break from tradition. My older sister was the first nonverbal, developmentally disabled person to have a Bat Mitzvah at my synagogue in the 1990s.
I was inspired to write and produce THIRTEEN for a few reasons.
When my business partner Kody Leibowitz and I decided to create our company and venture into narrative writing/filmmaking, I tried to think of the films I needed as a child—films that would have helped me feel seen while I was growing up with a profoundly disabled sister in a single-parent household.
Many moments in my young life stuck out, especially when I saw my mother advocate for my sister, including my sister’s Bat Mitzvah. Ultimately, I decided to write a short film loosely inspired by this moment to help people with disabilities, their families, and the Jewish community feel seen while educating people on the outside.
Although the film centers on Jewish life and disability, it is relatable to everyone as it looks at traditionalism, inclusion, and
progression.
Meanwhile, since 2020, my business partner and I have been working on MEANDERING SCARS, a feature-length documentary about a woman paralyzed in a domestic violence incident who spent the better part of two decades depressed and suicidal. Then, in 2019, she discovered a nonprofit that helps people with disabilities compete in obstacle course races, like the Spartan and Tough Mudder; she started participating, which changed her life.
She then decided to make it her mission to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, the tallest free-standing mountain in the world, located in
Tanzania, to spread awareness about mental health struggles and suicide in the disability community. She contemplated suicide often during her life and has had multiple friends with disabilities die by suicide.
But the film is about more than just the climb. It is about our story subject’s journey as a disabled person in America. It is about how inaccessibility, perceived burdensomeness, and financial turmoil due to a faulty system contributed to her deteriorating mental health and suicide ideation. It’s about overcoming and working through those dark feelings and how she helps other disabled people today. The Kilimanjaro climb is just a part of a bigger narrative.
The bulk of MEANDERING SCARS is finished, and we’ve already begun submitting it to festivals (it still needs color and sound correction, updated lower thirds and animation, and the final score).
THIRTEEN has been finished since January of this year and is having a successful festival run. So far, we’ve had several private screenings across the country and in Israel, and we’ve screened at the California Women’s Film Festival and Independent Shorts Awards. We were also recently selected to screen at the Austin Film Festival and Austin Jewish Film Festival.
THIRTEEN has also won several awards, including BEST ACTRESS and BEST ORIGINAL SCORE for the Independent Shorts Awards yearly awards, BEST ACTRESS from the LA Independent Women Film Awards, BEST INDIE SHORT, AWARD OF EXCELLENCE AND BEST ORIGINAL STORY for Independent Shorts Awards monthly awards, Award of Merit for Disability Issues and Best Supporting Actress for the Best Shorts Competition and an Honorable Mention from the Richmond International Film Festival.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
I’ve learned many lessons during my career, but some that I try to remember daily:
1.) Working in a creative field is a marathon, not a sprint. If you really want it, you have to be in for the long haul.
2.) Follow your intuition and your heart. I feel compelled to write and create most of what I write and create from within, and it feels very personal.
3.) Mistakes suck, but they are part of the journey and help you get better.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.birdmine.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/birdminestories; www.instagram.com/thirteen_short_film; www.instagram.com/meanderingscars
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BirdMineStories
Image Credits
BirdMine
