We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Allison Volk a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Allison thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My latest project is a short film titled, ‘The Storyteller.’ It’s about a cynical Army veteran-turned-night-janitor; one night at work, the phone continues to ring. When he finally answers, it’s a little boy on the line asking for a bedtime story. The vet must overcome his cynicism to tell a story that will help the boy fall asleep.

This project means a lot to me. It’s about someone overcoming their own limitations to connect with and serve another person in need, which is one of the brightest aspects of humanity. We shot at The Shelby American Collection, a car museum in Boulder, Colorado, dedicated to the preservation of Shelby racing history, so the location is beautiful. We were also able to incorporate the racing theme into the story of the film.

I’m really excited to share this project with the world. We just finished post-production in July, and have begun submitting to film festivals around the country.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

In 2008, I moved to Los Angeles with dreams of pursuing acting on screen. I made some traction, but pretty quickly discovered that I wasn’t getting auditions for the types of projects I REALLY wanted to be part of: films that uplift, that inspire, and that provide catharsis. My solution was to start writing my own projects.

It wasn’t long before I started producing my own work. Lucky for me, I was surrounded by other artists who were also eager to dig in and “make stuff,” and I produced my first short film in 2012. I’ll never forget the feeling of waking up super early and driving to set — my own set, where people were working together to breathe life into a script that I wrote! It was amazing. “This is how it will be,” is what I said to myself, and I’ve been making movies ever since then.

My most recent feature film, “Deany Bean is Dead,” is available on Amazon Prime, directed by Austrian filmmaker Mikael Kreuzriegler.

In 2022, my husband and I moved to Colorado, and that’s when I really started to get into directing. I directed a short film “All Choked Up” starring Siobhan Fallon Hogan and Bodie Newcomb, a comedy about a woman who must decide whether to save her husband when he starts choking on a sandwich during lunch. That project premiered at Aspen Shortsfest in April 2023 and went on to play at Palm Springs Shortfest, Comic Con San Diego, Indy Shorts International, Odense International Film Festival, Port Townsend Film Festival, Edmonton Film Festival, and Flickers’ Rhode Island.

I’m excited to continue getting to know the members of the Colorado film community, and continue making work that I find inspiring.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

We’re at an interesting intersection in the entertainment industry right now. Actors and writers are on strike so they can get fair, living wages, and gain protections against AI — a new and exciting and slightly terrifying technology. The ecosystem of entertainment is currently structured in a way that disadvantages the very people who generate the most interesting art — the stuff that all of us are sitting at home consuming every night before bed!

It is my hope that the outcome of the strike will be a more equitable system, one in which the actual artists can feed their families and create a life out of their artistry.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

My favorite moments are watching actors bring life to a script I’ve written. I also love collaborating on set, and in post production: everyone brings a unique perspective, and usually, the more people that get their eyes and hands on a project, the more interesting and layered it becomes.

I feel so lucky that I’ve been surrounded by such enthusiastic, deeply talented people.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allisonvolk/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ActressAllisonVolk
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3121574/