Filmmaker
My purpose as a filmmaker is to preserve essential stories, currently those of our remaining WWII veterans and survivors. My further aim is to bring beautiful narrative visions to the screen, many of these inspired by the world I encountered as a boy growing up in Asia.
Documentary work has given me the opportunity to connect with 100 year old veterans on a level that left me speechless. Their stories are preserved through the documentary films that I curate with a deep sense of responsibility to each veteran and to future generations.
Recent Works Highlight
The Big Stick - Documentary
The Big Stick: The USS Iowa Battleship Museum is the opening chapter of The USS Iowa: History For Today project. This pilot work, for the 80th Anniversary of the end of World War II, is told from the perspective of multiple generations of volunteers and veterans who gather upon the USS Iowa itself. The Big Stick explores the value of this, the museum era of the greatest battleship ever built. All filming is done about the USS Iowa at her permanent mooring in the Port of Los Angeles, California. Our initial project is a short version of The Big Stick, which will be expanded to a full length (45 min.+ Documentary) during spring of 2024.
Director: Elan Nicol
Camera: Dawson Storrs, Elan Nicol
Edited by: Mary Paige Rowsey, Dawson Storrs
Starring: Sue Schmidt, Lloyd Glick