CynCity keeps ownership, money, and decision-making local. Why was local ownership non-negotiable for you?
Ownership was non-negotiable. You can't love Chicago, film its skyline, exploit its tax incentives, hire its people for a season, and then take every dime of profit and decision-making power back to LA or New York. That's a rental. That's colonialism. When the money circulates, it pays local crew, vendors, artists, and then gets reinvested into the next local project—that's sustainable wealth building and ownership is the engine of that.
You’re part of a growing movement of women redefining ownership and distribution. Explain what “creative freedom” actually looks like to you in practice.
Creative freedom, in practice? It's the quiet in the room when a note doesn't come. It's the ability to greenlight a project because it moves me, not because it fits a pre-existing sales model. It looks like casting the authentically brilliant actress from the theater on 79th Street without having to argue about her "visibility." It's editing a scene to let a silent moment breathe, because life has silent moments, without a studio executive fearing it's "too slow." It's the freedom to be nuanced, to be specific and to trust that specificity is universal.