No Time to be Timid

Dava Whisenant: Finding Creativity Outside Her Comfort Zone


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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:

www.cactusflowerfilms.com


 


 

Completed films:

Bathtubs Over Broadway


 

Take That Step (finale song in Bathtubs Over Broadway)


 

The Flagmakers


 

Two Trains Runnin’


 

Butterfly in the Sky


 

Diane Warren: Relentless


 


 

The subject of her work in progress:

Thomas Jackson


 

Learn more about her co-writer Steve Young

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


 


 


 


 

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No Time to be TimidBy Tricia Rose Burt

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