Tiny Leaps Productions, LLC produces and distributes film, video and new media that address issues of identity and social change to foster critical thinking. Tiny Leaps Productions was founded as a non profit in 1998 in Chicago, IL. The goal was to promote innovative projects in media arts and theater. In fall 2009, founder Brigid Maher incorporated the company as a LLC in Washington, DC.
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT: BRIGID MAHER is a filmmaker and tenured, associate professor of Film and Media Arts Division in the School of Communication at American University. Her previous documentary, Veiled Voices, focuses on the phenomenon of Muslim women religious leaders in Islam. Veiled Voices is distributed by Typecast Releasing in the United States and has screened on over 150 public television stations and three national networks. Al Jazeera Network recently acquired the film for broadcast in the Middle East and North Africa. The film has additional international distribution through TVF International and has screened in numerous international festivals in the United States and abroad. Several of her films have international distribution, including her latest documentary, The Mama Sherpas released in 2015 alongside producer Ricky Lake and Abby Epstien (The Business of Being Born) Maher won a Fulbright Senior Award to teach broadcast media in Lebanon in the spring of 2005.
PRODUCER: ERIK VADNAIS received a B.A. from the Journalism school at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, and holds an M.S. in Technology Management from George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. He has fifteen years experience in the IT Security industry, ranging from tech support, to cloud security program management for a Fortune 20 telecommunications cloud service provider. Erik brings both knowledge of, and contacts in, the IT cloud and security industries. He is starting an analog-to-digital media conversion service by using private and cloud platforms. The company helps move your precious memories stored in shoeboxes under your stairs to your own personal LAN, or perhaps over the web to a protected cloud. You retain control over your personal digital media by putting you in control of who sees your content. It is the natural progression from Web 2.0 to your private collection or public media presentation. It’s the next innovation in family history storytelling. Before his IT career, Erik spent five years in the Navy as an Airman, Plane Captain, Journalist, and Public Affairs Officer. He served aboard the aircraft carrier USS America and the dock landing ship USS Oak Hill. During TWA Flight #800 search and recovery operations, he provided media support to the VP of the National Transportation Safety Board, the Speaker of the House, and the Director of the FBI.