How This Doc Project Began

We started on this documentary journey like so many other storytelling adventures: we connected with someone who was doing something so interesting we just had to be a witness.

I met Holly Church at the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center while scouting a location for another client. Holly is an amazing networker, and her daughter Elena was in need of a videographer for her upcoming runway show during Milwaukee’s Fashion Week. We exchanged contact, and a few days later, Elena Velez sent me an email that had me intrigued.

She needed someone to record her upcoming show, and I happened to be looking for my next documentary project. Her credentials were impeccable, and I was excited to see how a high-energy show was planned and executed – on a shoestring budget, no less – as well as get a closer look at this incredible designer who draws her inspiration from her hometown and her mom.

So it is fitting that Holly introduced us.

NEXT WEEK: What I consider when taking on a new documentary project.

Elena Velez and her mom, Holly Church, chat before Elena’s runway show during Milwaukee’s Fashion Week in 2019.