Brian Lindstrom is an award-winning filmmaker working in both narrative and documentary modes. He is best known for Finding Normal, his cinema-verite documentary following three long-term addicts trying to rebuild their lives with the help of peer counselors. Lindstrom made the film for $5,000, shooting and editing himself. Finding Normal won awards at the Astoria International and Longbaugh Film Festivals, was selected for several others, enjoyed extended successful runs at local theaters as well as screenings in Los Angeles, New York, and Michigan, and was broadcast on Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon Public Broadcasting is the primary television and radio public broadcasting network for most of Oregon as well as southern Washington. With its headquarters and television studios in Portland, OPB consists of five full-power television stations, dozens of VHF or UHF translators, and over...

. Perhaps more importantly, it is the only film ever to be shown to inmates in solitary confinement at Oregon State Penitentiary

Oregon State Penitentiary

Oregon State Penitentiary , the first state prison in Oregon, United States, was originally located in Portland in 1851. In 1866 it was moved to a site in Salem and enclosed by a reinforced concrete wall averaging in height...

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Lindstrom’s experience includes making films with at-risk youth in Portland, rural Oregon, Idaho and the South Bronx. He was a staff producer/director for The Visionaries, a documentary series on PBS hosted by Sam Waterston

Sam Waterston

Samuel Atkinson "Sam" Waterston is an American actor and occasional producer and director. Among other roles, he is noted for his Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Sydney Schanberg in 1984's The Killing Fields, and his Golden Globe- and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning portrayal of Jack McCoy...

, for which he was awarded a Telly

Telly

The word telly may refer to:* A colloquial term for television* Telly Monster* Telly Awards* Telly Home Entertainment Server*Telly , a range of computer systems*Telly Addicts UK game show*Indian Telly Awards...

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Lindstrom is currently directing Alien Boy: the Death and Life of James Chasse. The film examines the life of a forty two year old man diagnosed with schizophrenia who died in police custody in 2006.

Since 1994 Lindstrom has taught in the Northwest Film Center’s Young Filmmaker’s Program, using video as a tool of empowerment for at-risk youth. Lindstrom is married to the American writer Cheryl Strayed

Cheryl Strayed

Cheryl Strayed is a novelist and essayist living in Portland, Oregon. Her debut novel, TORCH, was published by Houghton Mifflin in 2006...

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Lindstrom attended Lewis & Clark College, receiving a degree in Communications in 1984. The young graduate then became friends with retired Lewis & Clark professor Stuart Kaplan, who inspired Lindstrom to pursue a career in film making.

Filmography

• Alien Boy: the Death and Life of James Chasse (in production)
• Finding Normal (2007)
• Kicking (2004)

External links

• Brian Lindstrom official site
• Alien Boy: the Death and Life of James Chasse