In 1998, Cyndi Moran and Eric Scholl traveled to Madeline Island in northern Wisconsin to film a dogsled race for a documentary video, one of several the couple was then working on. There, they found an 11-year-old girl who was competing–in the pro class–for the second time, an exchange student from Italy who’d seen snow only once in his life, and a 60-ish county commissioner who’d started mushing after having a brain tumor removed. “He had some kind of epiphany,” says Moran, a video editor at Post Effects.
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That same year she and Scholl, who is the assistant chair of Columbia College’s film and video department, traveled to western Louisiana. There they met Mrs. Caillot, an 84-year-old woman whose son had been Dolly Parton’s hairdresser and personal assistant.
Closer to home, in Rogers Park, they found 75-year-old Nicole Bergere, a Jaguar-driving former performance artist and costume designer who’s currently the owner of Nicole’s Bake Shop. They taped Bergere’s birthday party, which included tango dancing and guests of all ages, for a project on older women. “She says she’s 75 and still sexy,” says Moran. “Boy, is she. I don’t think I could ever have been as sexy as she is now.”
