Sarah Priestnall

Work Flow Supervisor

I was a quiet kid in high school but I had two passions – political change and rock n’ roll. Coming of age in England under Margaret Thatcher made me rebel against my parents and immerse myself in socialist politics. I was helped along the way by a brilliant Economics teacher. So when it was time to pick a university, I refused to consider Oxford or Cambridge and insisted on going to the London School of Economics, home of many leading left-wing academics, and most important, Mick Jagger’s alma mater.

By graduation, my love of music had been joined by a love of movies. I knew I wanted to work in the film and television industry but had no idea what I could do. I’d heard that in Soho, London, there were companies called post production facilities that hired young college graduates to be “runners”. I didn’t know what that meant other than it could be a foot in the door. I got a job as a runner and spent three months making coffee and serving food to very demanding clients. I was a little over-qualified but so was everyone else there. I quickly moved up to tape op, assistant editor etc.. and at 25 moved to Hollywood. Well actually the beach – that’s where all Brits move when they move to LA.

At some point I became an expert in post production – working for manufacturers, managing facilities and pioneering cool technologies like “Digital Intermediate”. Along the way I got to work on some great TV shows ("Northern Exposure", "Star Trek: The Next Generation") and was lucky enough to work with some of my favorite filmmakers, the Coen Brothers and Roger Deakins on "O Brother Where Art Thou", the first Hollywood film finished using the Digital Intermediate process.

But I wasn’t satisfied –I still wanted to make a difference. I went back to school and got a Masters in Public Policy – it was Pepperdine University and I was known to my professors as “the socialist” and sometimes “the marxist” – they respected me despite our differing political views. Although I consulted with RAND and Reason (a libertarian thinktank – I kept my political views to myself), I ended up working in the movie industry again. But now I couldn’t shake the urge to make documentaries. Serendipity struck and I camped next to Michael Johnson at a music festival. And once he told me about Nature’s Genius, I knew I had finally found a project where I could combine my passion to tell stories that can change the world with the skills I had acquired in my professional career. It’s a big challenge but it’s one that will be life-changing and maybe world-changing.