Ultimate Urban Garden Center

7700 Northaven Rd, Dallas TX 75230 • 214-363-5316 www.nhg.com

Advocate

April 2013

DUE

March 8 distribute them, rather than handing it off to a distribution company. So by producing and distributing, we could make sure the films could get to the people and the organizations that could benefit from the subject matter.

“We have similar skills, so it’s not like she’s doing all one thing, and I’m doing all of the other. We both co-write, co-produce and co-direct the films that we do. Cynthia is better at one thing. Because of her background and her personality, she’s much better at marketing and PR than me. See, that’s a pitch to you.”

CM: “I thought you were going to say technology.”

AM: “That too.”

CM: “The technical part, I’m much more astute…”

AM: “More astute. Not much more astute.”

CM: “But in terms of the content, we both have very different eyes in the way we see certain things and the way we interpret. So what makes our collaboration really successful is that there’s no ego involved. It’s just the project that we care about. It’s the importance of the film, and we also respect each other’s opinion. We don’t agree a lot, but we respect each other. When we first started, when we were working on different projects, we thought the project we were working on was the most important thing in our lives, and we would neglect things at home. It’s easier to split those things up when you know the other person is working just as hard as you. There’s an understanding.”

Would you say that’s the key, having a common goal?

CM: “Oh yeah. I’ve seen a lot of people who work together, when one of them gets more credit than the other, that splits up their collaboration.”

AM: “It’s a partnership. And in a partnership, whether it’s in a totally different business or whether it’s a relationship, you have to have respect for each other.”

—Brittany Nunn

Learn more about the Mondells’ Media Projects, Inc. at mediaprojects.org. The couple’s most-recent film, “A Reason to Live” aired on KERA in January.