Director BIO: Holly Chadwick (SOUNDS OF FREEDOM)

Holly was raised by her grandparents on Whidbey Island. They believed in rigorous music studies to combat the trauma of coming from parents with mental illness. Though she didn’t become a concert pianist, she has directed short movies, documentaries and now the web series, the Sounds of Freedom. She earned a B.A. in Film and Digital Media from the University of California, Santa Cruz and has studied fine art and digital media as far away as Italy and The Banff Centre in Alberta Canada.

At the age of 16, Holly was a key member in a successful Internet start up and went on to working for fine art and newspaper publishing companies and designing for advertising.

She was a member of Americorps for two years where she helped kids learn to read and taught digital photography in her local community.

Holly has worked in a darkroom developing crime scene photos, had a father with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the inspiration for Sounds of Freedom. She is also working on a documentary featuring her mother, mental illness, and herself called Music in My Head.

Holly resides on Whidbey Island in the same house she grew up in with her husband, two Golden Retrievers and rather psycho kitty. She enjoys kayaking, boating, playing piano, extreme sledding and off-roading adventures.