Tom Weidlinger is an independent filmmaker who has been writing directing and producing documentary films for thirty-five years. Many have won festival awards and twenty-one have aired nationally on public television. Concerned with themes of social justice, his work deals with a wide range of topics from the dilemmas of humanitarian aid in the Congo to high school students with learning differences. After a lifetime of city dwelling and global travel Tom moved to the rural foothills of the Sierras. He and his wife Sharon live in a straw bale house on twenty acres of oak and manzanita-forested land. When Tom is not writing or working on a film in his editing room he volunteers at a community center, helping teenagers find their voice through filmmaking. He loves to snowshoe and hike in the mountains with Sharon and takes special pleasure in close observation of natural world just outside his front door.