Biography

I’m currently producing the documentary, Journey to Peace, which explores the real-life stories of average citizens who are affecting the course of conflict in their community through making a stand for peace. I was inspired to do this by a comment the Dalai Lama made when I was interviewing him for a previous documentary, Shadow Over Tibet, “Before you can have external peace, you must have a zone of peace in your heart.” I’ve always enjoyed telling stories that reveal or tease out the best of humanity. I once produced an off-the-shelf sexual harassment awareness training film using humor. Most thought it wouldn’t work, but I figured if I could get people laughing they could finally have dialogue. It worked and was a best-seller in the training market for several years. In the future, I’d like to combine my love of oral storytelling and filmmaking and become a public speaker around the subject of Journey to Peace.

Websites: www.mrakulous.com, www.journeytopeace.org

Interests: Storytelling (oral traditions), long-distance bicycling (I once did a fundraiser for an AID’s organization by riding my bike 500 miles in 6 days), traveling (I’ve been to France, Germany, Italy, Croatia, India & to many places in Canada, Mexico & the US), reading