Workshop Participants
I’m a filmmaker, marketer, and communications lead passionate about telling human interest and climate change stories.
I’ve had multiple careers in my life starting with ballet dancer where I trained at the School of American Ballet and worked with leading companies in the US and Europe. Following a knee injury, I went on to study film at the Tisch School of the Arts. Since then, I’ve worked on indie features, documentaries, reality TV shows, corporate and non-profit videos, and led video ethnographies/user research studies at Ogilvy for 10 + years. Most recently, I’ve worked as a marketing lead supporting product teams to launch tech innovations in Silicon Valley.
Originally from Montreal, I’ve lived most of my life in NYC. As a Greek/Canadian, I lived in Athens for six years where I worked as a cinematographer for a long-form news show called « Fakelous » and directed a mid-length film called « When Fish Fly ». I returned to NY in 2009, a few months shy of the riots in Athens and Greece’s economic downturn.
Ten years ago, my husband and I moved out to California with our then-18-month-old daughter and our Jack Russell Terrier. We’ve since grown our family to two sweet little girls and two rambunctious dogs - although the “sweet” and “rambunctious” are often interchangeable between the girls and the dogs :)
I enjoy cooking, exploring the Bay Area food scene, traveling, reading with my kids, and learning about nature and environmental stewardship. My daughter and I volunteer with the Pacific Beach Coalition and serve as site captains for Rockaway Beach in Pacifica. We organize beach cleanups every first Saturday of the month, so if you’re ever inspired to help clean up our coastal shorelines, come and find us!
Professionally, I love the process of developing new products and the creative collaboration that goes into making a film. Ultimately, my goal is to get back into independent filmmaking and tell stories that are more personally meaningful to me.
I’m excited to meet all of you and work together to create compelling films of untold stories that move us to become better people.
Tim Obert has been hooked on fishing since landing his first fish as a young boy with his father off the Santa Cruz Wharf on California’s Central Coast.
By the time he was 12, he was working and sleeping on charter boats in the town’s harbor.
It was an early start to the dream he’s been living for the nearly two decades since, as a captain and commercial fisherman.
The sea has provided Obert a stable life, allowing him to raise a family and invest in his business. But in fishing, there is always a risk.
Sometimes the fish are biting, sometimes they aren’t. There are good days and bad days. Sometimes those bad days turn into bad years.
It’s a salty old truth that long-time fishermen know how to plan for a rainy day.
Recent state regulations aimed at saving whales and increasing the salmon population have kept fishing boats like the Stacey Jo, which Obert captains, stuck at the dock.
Obert has stepped up to help his fishing buddies, running the Santa Cruz Commercial Fishermen’s Association and serving as a member of the Dungeness Crab Task Force to work with California’s environmental agencies on behalf of his fleet.
But it’s a role that comes at a cost, and not just financial. The most important trade off for Obert is time spent away from his family.
“I’m on like ten boards right now. Not a dollar am I making for it,” Obert said. “Being on a six-hour call is excruciating sometimes. The time away is horrible.”
In Finding Balance, Obert speaks candidly about the struggles of being a good husband and father while also working to succeed as a commercial fisherman, and how that’s been further complicated by the leadership roles he shoulders while stuck on land.
Obert and the other fishermen who have braved such regulatory storms before believe it will pass and they’ll again be pulling their catch from the ocean.
Obert believes both sides must work together to consider conservation interests alongside those of the fishing industry, just as he works to find the right centerpoint between his family’s needs and those of the industry he loves during his fleet’s long, rainy day.
It’s all just a matter of finding the right balance.
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This story was reported by four workshop participants in Santa Cruz, CA for the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop in early December, 2023.