Kimberly Pruitt
"A Passionate Storyteller"
I once slept on a train in Brooklyn, New York so that I could hear one of my favorite filmmakers give a speech. I was homeless at the time and constantly being told by non-dreamers to call it quits on my dream, move back home to Michigan and get a "real job." But I already had a real job. I was a storyteller -- I am a storyteller, by any means necessary.
Although I didn't have a consistent place to lay my head, I had the opportunity of a lifetime working for and learning from the GOAT of filmmaking: Spike Lee, and I wouldn't give that up. Likewise, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to hear Gina Prince-Bythewood share her storytelling wisdom, even if it meant missing the last bus to my Grandmother's house in Philly and sleeping alone on a Brooklyn train on a cold November night.
Crazy, I know, but that's who I am. I'm crazy about telling stories and learning how to tell stories better, and if I never participated in anything unconventional I wouldn't have any stories to tell, right?