I was born in a small town in N. California called Glen Ellen.

My Muir-inspired father John D. Olmsted was off stopping bulldozers and saving state parks - like Jug Handle State Reserve in Mendocino, so it was up to my history-major mother to raise my brother and I. She taught us California history as we drove to relatives' houses or to the beach in the summer. I never knew how low our income was until much later, mom didn't let our finances limit our adventures.

I almost made it through one year of college, but dropped out to start a bmx bicycle company at age 19. Summer camp employment in the Santa Cruz Mountains, mission trips to Mexicali, screen printing classes and a different car nearly every year, my twenties were a mix of almost-successes and lots of lessons learned.

In 1999 I made a simple but important journey - flying to Indiana to purchase a 1966 Chrysler convertible. I knew I needed to buckle down and get my life together, but I also realized I needed to enjoy the present, and the convertible was the perfect companion. It's been featured in films like Catch Me If You Can, Bottle Shock, and TV shows like Cold Case Files, and every time the top goes down is a reminder to slow down and enjoy the ride.

I returned and graduated college and until 2008 had a mostly normal life, enjoying the fruits of a good job, summer house parties, traveling abroad, buying a new car, and even filming my first movie, Dill, California. I knew however, that if I really wanted to write and direct films I needed to leave my stable job and predictable life and head back to Hollywood - for the third time for those keeping count.

After writing three screenplays and going to lots of networking mixers and events, I was wondering if I'd made the right choice. That was when I got the phone call that would change the next decade of my life - my father had six months to live.

A hurried trailer and a whirlwind experience of becoming my father's caregiver resulted in my first feature-length documentary My Father, Who Art in Nature (2012), which showed at Nevada City's Wild and Scenic Film Festival, and to my dad, five days before he died.

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In the decade following I've made two more documentaries about dad and his parks, Jug Handle in Mendocino, and The Independence Trail in Nevada City.

In 2018 with nothing to lose and staying at a friends' house I took a risk that is still paying rewards - I decided to finally tell the story of that 19 year old kid and the BMX company I'd started. I hired filmmaker brother's Kevin and Brian Flint and we hit the road, tracking down the bikes and the stories - and so many wonderful reviews of my design that I'd never heard.

30 Bikes: The Story of Homestead Bicycles is now on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, and Apple TV.

Life is still different since I accepted that call to care for dad and to tell my story of following my dreams but I'm finally convinced of my path - and ready to give my gift back to the world.

~ October 2021

Freedom's Road