Sarah Marder

a farm girl from Kansas who went yuppie, moved to Italy and then, twenty years later, turned green

<div><b>Corporate career on-ramp</b></div><p>While I grew up on a farm in Kansas, oddly enough I moved to Italy way back in 1988 and have lived here ever since. &nbsp;</p><p><br>I have known and loved Cortona, the town where we filmed THE GENIUS OF A PLACE, since 1986, when my now husband took me there the first time, hoping to impress me with the place's beauty. It worked. Two years later we married (in Cortona, naturally). <i>&nbsp;Click here to see <a href="http://youtu.be/xffVbUI1fqU" title="why I fell in love with Cortona" target="_blank">some of the things I love about Cortona</a>.</i></p><p>&nbsp;<br>In professional terms, I'm a corporate manager turned filmmaker. During the 22 years I worked for a Really Big Bank (aka Citigroup), I did everything from selling bonds to managing the Bank's image and community programs in Italy. &nbsp;On my last gig, I looked after Diversity-related communications for the Europe, Middle East and African region, spanning 55 countries.&nbsp;</p><div><div><br></div><p><b>Personal life off-ramp</b></p><p></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; border-top-style: none !important; border-right-style: none !important; border-bottom-style: none !important; border-left-style: none !important; border-width: initial !important; border-color: initial !important; "><p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; ">On the side, my husband and I also had four children. &nbsp;</p><p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; "><br>After having my fourth child a little existential crisis set in. While I felt that the bank had been really good to me, I realized that I wanted to dedicate my working hours to projects that felt important and socially useful to me. Otherwise, I didn't feel as though I could detract that time from my family life in good conscience. &nbsp;</p><p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; "><br>At the end of 2008 I left the Bank, intending to use my creativity and harness my skills in sustainability-related consultation and projects. In all honesty, I wasn't really sure what I would end up doing besides no longer working in a big company for a salary. I just figured I'd experiment a bit and throw myself wholeheartedly into whatever came up that really appealed to me.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; "><br></p><p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; ">Exactly as I was leaving the Bank I was a speaker at a conference which was being filmed by OLO creative farm. I got to know OLO's three founding partners (Max De Ponti, Mattia Amadori and Andrea Corti) a little bit and found them not only more-than-competent but also highly agreeable people. On top of that, they also knew how to make films, which I didn't. The little wheels in my brain started whirring...</p><p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; "><br>I had long had this vague idea in my head of wanting to document&nbsp;<a href="http://youtu.be/JZL34zmduTo" title="changes I was witnessing in Cortona" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 87); text-decoration: none; ">what worried me about Cortona</a>, a once quiet little town I loved and yet felt was slipping away as modernization crept up on it.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; "><br></p><p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; ">So when I met these three great guys, I popped them a question. &nbsp;</p><p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; "><br>"Hey, any chance you guys might want to explore the idea of doing a documentary together?"</p><p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; "><br>And, to paraphrase Rick in Casablanca, that was the beginning of our beautiful friendship...</p><p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; "><br></p><p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; ">Nearly three years later, we've developed the idea, been on seven shoots, finished filming, have seriously begun our editing process, have a group of followers who support us and are cheering us on... and today I can honestly say that we are well on our way to making a feature-length film together. &nbsp;</p><p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; "><br></p><p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; ">I still have to pinch myself to believe it's true. &nbsp;I must say to myself 25 times a day: how cool is that?&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; "><br></p></div><p></p></div><div><b>Creative career on-ramp</b></div><div>So popping that question to Max, Mattia and Andrea marked the beginning of a new professional life for me in which I'm working at least as hard as before (you would not believe what time I get up in the morning) but channeling my creativity and energy into a project that has deep personal meaning for me. &nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Since I can do much of the work from home, I now get to eat lunch and dinner almost every day with my children (bonus!) ... and having so much fun in the process!</div><div><br></div><div>It's as though I had been speeding down one highway, got off it, bumped along for a few minutes on a little country lane and then found a completely new road to explore. &nbsp;And it feels as though it's just the right road for me. &nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>So, again (am I driving you nuts?): how cool is that?</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

About Me

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