Dava Whisenant: Finding Creativity Outside Her Comfort Zone
Dava Whisenant, founder and president of Cactus Flower Films, is a master storyteller who has stories to tell, and she tells them with honesty and humor. For more than 20 years, she’s worked in narrative and nonfiction film as an editor — from The Late Show with David Letterman to the Emmy-winning and Oscar- short-listed documentary short The Flagmakers — and now as a director. The award-winning documentary Bathtubs Over Broadway, was her directorial debut, for which she won Best Director at the Tribeca Film Festival and a Writer’s Guild Award for Best Documentary Screenplay. We talk about her creative process, the necessity of a team, the financial challenges of a creative life, the value of being scared, and the importance of inspirational mugs!
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Show Notes
Dava Whisenant, founder and president of Cactus Flower Films, is a master storyteller who has stories to tell, and she tells them with honesty and humor. For more than 20 years, she’s worked in narrative and nonfiction film as an editor — from The Late Show with David Letterman to the Emmy-winning and Oscar- short-listed documentary short The Flagmakers — and now as a director. The award-winning documentary Bathtubs Over Broadway, was her directorial debut, for which she won Best Director at the Tribeca Film Festival and a Writer’s Guild Award for Best Documentary Screenplay. We talk about her creative process, the necessity of a team, the financial challenges of a creative life, the value of being scared, and the importance of inspirational mugs!
Takeaways
- Surrounding yourself with a team of good-hearted people, helps you get you through the hard times
- The creative process requires resilience —particularly with those big dreams that take a while to realize.
- It may not always be comfy, but sometimes it pays to keep your overhead low so you can take more creative chances.
- And the greatest rewards lie outside your comfort zones.
Resources:
Learn more about Dava:
Completed films:
Take That Step (finale song in Bathtubs Over Broadway)
The subject of her work in progress:
Learn more about her co-writer Steve Young
And listen to him on No Time to be Timid!
My attempt at a film short:
How to Dye Your Hair at Home (During a Global Pandemic)
A useful book to discover where your gifts are:
The Genuis Zone by Gay Hendricks