The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2016 69 Launching a Documentary Film Company BY LEONARD HILL M y post-retirement path has been partly traditional— rediscovering the ups and downs of living in my own house, several months of WAE (now REA) work a year—and partly unconventional. Launching, with my wife, a documen- tary film production company a year into “retirement” was definitely not one of the things we had talked about or planned during the Job Search Program. Here are a few things that I’ve taken away from the process: • An “extended home leave” cleared the decks for the next phase of life. Approaching retirement as I would home leave—a time of transition to something new, with a lot of things to do to get ready—worked well for me and my wife. I focused on getting through a list of necessary but not neces- sarily exciting tasks—e.g., renovations to our house, figuring out what to do with stuff that was in stor- age—rather than thinking too much about my new status (or lack thereof). Before I knew it, I had both accomplished the tasks on the list and found myself headed on a com- pletely unanticipated path. • Be open to a change. Although my wife and I want to be near our aging parents, who require some assistance, we have tried to keep ourselves as flexible as possible to take advantage of new oppor- tunities. • Networks matter. From WAE assignments Leonard Hill and his wife, Cathy Stevulak, interview Bangladeshi artist Suraiya Rahman in Dhaka for the documentary film “Threads,” which recently completed its film festival run. ANILADVANIANDKANTHAPRODUCTIONSLLC to finding a film crew in Bangladesh, people I met during my diplomatic career have been crucial to what I have done since leaving the Service. Staying in touch or reconnecting with friends and colleagues has been one of the pleasures my wife and I have enjoyed post-retirement. And the networks that we developed have helped us immensely, either directly or by introducing us to others who have been helpful. Making an independent film—as anyone who stays in the theater to read the credits knows—takes a lot of people; intro- ductions and recommendations make finding them so much more effective. Leonard Hill counted four transitions between climate zones 1 and 3 during his Foreign Service career, serving overseas as a political and economic officer, consul general or deputy chief of mission in every geographic bureau except Near Eastern Affairs. Since retirement, he has produced an award-winning documentary film, “Threads,” about Bangladeshi artist Surayia Rahman, as well as completing WAE assignments in Tunisia, Canada and Central Asia. He lives with his wife and film-producing partner, Cathy Stevulak, in Gig Harbor, Washington.