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Meet the Filmmaker: Maureen Lee Maloney, “Girl Aspiring Episode 5: Elephant Keeper, Maura Davis”

Q: Why did you become a filmmaker?
MM: I originally became a filmmaker to educate people about science, but eventually realized that human stories are more important and more impactful. Now my focus is on educating through the telling of human stories, and really connecting people across cultural and geographic barriers.

Q: What are we going to see at EFPalooza? Has it screened elsewhere and what are your plans for it?
MM: Girl Aspiring is a web series featuring women in a variety of careers. Episode 5 will be shown at EFPalooza, and it is about Maura Davis, the Assistant Curator of Elephants at the Denver Zoo, and the team of women who take care of the elephants. Maura shares how she came to work with elephants, and what it takes to become an Elephant Keeper.

Q: What else are you working on?
MM: I am currently producing and directing a feature-length documentary called Voice of Vanilla about women vanilla farmers in Madagascar, and the risks they take to bring us our favorite spice.

Q: Tell us one weird thing about you and/or your movies?
MM: I stumbled into my first few jobs by happy accident. For instance, I was B camera for a documentary about a group of Mayan elders leading a sacred pilgrimage through the Lacandon rainforest in Chiapas, Mexico. I just happened to have contacted a filmmaker living in San Cristobal through Couchsurfing.com to see if I could crash on her couch. She asked me if I was available to work on the film, hiking through the rainforest for 3 weeks. Obviously I said yes.

Q: Where can people go to find out more about you and your work?
MM: MaureenLeeMaloney.com

Q: Is there anything you’d like to say about EFPalooza or The Emerging Filmmakers Project?
MM: EFP is a really special program, and I am always honored to be part of it.

Girl Aspiring Episode 5: Elephant Keeper, Maura Davis will screen Saturday, March 21st at 3:00 p.m. at The Bug Theatre as part of the “A Decade of Colorado Independent Women of Film” block during the 2020 EFPalooza Film Festival.