NEVADA CITY

Neither Lillian or myself felt comfortable with a shoot in Los Angeles. Los Angeles represented the past lives we were both healing from. For the shoot to feel safe, we had to be far from home.

On July 2018, Lillian re-united with a former client and friend Cassandra. Their newly formed sisterhood took them back to Los Angeles where we met together for the first time as a trifecta. This was our team. Lillian bought a van (Betty) to adventure up to Oregon with Cassandra. I would meet them in Oregon after working on the first season of Facebook’s Red Table Talks. That summer, wild fires peppered Southern Oregon and Central California. Evacuations and air quality kept Lillian and Cassandra from reaching Oregon. To make matters worse, Betty turned out to be, well, moody. Automotive problems stranded Lillian and Cassandra in Central California forcing them to hunker down in Nevada City for repairs. There, they found an available studio for rent — a large open space with a bed, some sofas, random furniture, and privacy to shoot Cosmic Touch. It wasn’t much, but it would do.

I drove up there to spend a couple of weeks with them to co-create the unknown. What resulted was Cosmic Touch. Betty and the studio are featured in the opening shots of the film.