It’s a time of more shouting than listening. We need to listen more than ever.

1. 2006

   

   Willa learns to interview, on eight farms in Tuscany.

   A college thesis on Tuscan olive-oil production, written in Italian and researched in the groves. The first time field conversations and research became one story.

2. 2008–09

   

   From unpaid intern to producer at New Hampshire Public Radio.

   An internship through the financial crash and the 2008 election, which turned into a paid temporary producer role in the newsroom. Where the habit of listening for the story began.

3. 2009

   

   Trained in documentary radio at the Salt Institute.

   Portland, Maine. Interview strangers, transcribe every word, build the story from what people actually said. Still how every Firestarter film is made.

4. 2009–13

   

   Four years freelancing in Portland, one gig at a time.

   A year of waitressing as the safety net, homemade business cards, then a real logo and one small gig after another. Audio became multimedia, then film, for city institutions and colleges including Bates and Williams, and a first shoot abroad, in Ethiopia with the Global Family Initiative.

5. 2014

   

   From doing it all herself to a team: Firestarter Interactive launches in New York City.

   Five years of developing, interviewing, shooting, editing and bookkeeping alone had hit a ceiling. Collaborating with cinematographers, editors, designers and story producers made bigger, more polished work possible, and in 2014 that circle was formalized as a company.

6. 2014–20

   

   Six years of shoots across three continents.

   Iceland and Chile for her own destination series, shot solo and edited by her afterward. The Whitsundays for Qantas, cut in the air before landing in LA. The Adventure Travel World Summit in Salta, Argentina.

7. 2016

   

   The studio moves home to Rhode Island.

   Education partnerships deepen — Trinity College, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, The Hunt Institute — and foundation and nonprofit work widens, from the RI Farm & Sea to School Institute to Montana, Mississippi, Ethiopia and Australia.

8. 2019

   

   Willa graduates from Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses.

   She speaks at the Rhode Island cohort’s graduation, and the same year earns Georgetown University certificates in Social Impact Storytelling and Social Impact Partnership Design. The business behind the studio gets the same rigor as the films.

9. 2020

   

   Starting at Zero, our first feature documentary, premieres.

   Directed by Willa and co-produced with the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation. Audience Award at Film Invasion Los Angeles, and more than 100 community screenings since.

10. 2022–24

    

    Kelp Movement: two short films, and a feature in development.

    Early-stage interviews across the Northeast and two shorts released, one with 1% for the Planet. The feature is seeking a production partner.

11. Today

    

    A second engine: online brand and marketing, alongside the films.

    Now based in Mystic, Connecticut, the company’s production work continues — and it has expanded into the online brand and marketing world through FIRESTARTERIX: campaigns for audience growth, engagement and conversion, personal brands for filmmakers, founders and experts, and Firestarter Funnels, our own platform, now running 250 funnels for 130 brands.

How we work The films The full origin story