Frances Glessner Lee is happening!

Our documentary filming adventures took us to a little out-of-the-way museum that happens to have a permanent Frances Glessner Lee exhibit. A documentary filmmakers' dream! The exhibit is complete with her portrait - painted by R. Hanson, photos of her hands working on miniatures for a Popular Mechanics photo shoot, the "Missing Nutshell," 100s of Frances' miniatures and a few other lovely artifacts.

Someone pointed out to us that Frances had pretty big hands which makes her intricate miniature work even more impressive.

Interestingly, a lot is happening on the Frances front! I get contacted almost weekly from various production companies, movie and television producers, agents, lawyers, researchers, screenwriters, teleplay writers, authors, etc, that have their own Frances project in the works. But I'm most excited about the HBO show penned by Sara Gran based on Corinne May Botz's book. I'm big fans of both these ladies! Read more about it here!

It's truly wonderful that the world is waking up to Frances. And believe me, her great-grand children are thrilled that she's getting the credit she deserves.

Also thank you all for your well-wishes on my McKnight fellowship. I'm so honored and I can't help but think that Frances had a lot to do with it!

And finally, this time next week I will be presenting about Frances at a forensic conference. I can't wait!

Of Dolls & Murder filmmaker awarded McKnight's Media Artist fellowship!

Read all about Susan Marks and the other fellows of the  McKnight's Media Artist fellowship here! 
(Love how they mention John Waters!)

Also, a recent (wonderful!) article/review about Of Dolls & Murder here.

Happy Memorial Day!

In this 1949 article about Frances Glessner Lee, George Oswald calls her a passionate crusade for justice and a tireless lobbyist for reform of the coroner system. He writes, "Many innocent Americans owe Mrs. Lee their freedom, and countless criminals their just convictions."

For this and many other reasons we honor Frances Glessner Lee every Memorial Day.

Inside the not-so-missing Nutshell

These Nutshell photos really speak for themselves.

More Missing Nutshell photos

Thanks to the iphone, I was able to carefully stick my hand into this Nutshell Study of Unexplained Death and snap a few photos. Otherwise these views are too far back to view properly. Impressive miniature carpentry, no? Especially when you consider the scale is 1:12.

More about the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.

Documentary Film Shoot at the Rocks

 Our documentary shoot at The Rocks exceeded all our expectations. Frances Glessner Lee's great-grandchildren hung out with us, sharing incredible insights about "Fanny." And you could not find better, more down to earth people than this family. We felt so lucky. And we also cannot say enough great things about The Rocks and the staff there. More photos coming soon of the unfinished Nutshell.

If want to know more about Frances Glessner Lee, go here!

Missing Nutshell

 Frances Glessner Lee's "missing" Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death

Our shoot was amazing. We met so many wonderful people with great insights into Frances Glessner Lee's life. And ya know how new discoveries is a theme of this documentary? As of last week, there were more new discovery about her life. And a mystery was solved! Something we've been wondering about for about 7 years. It was a huge thrill to see finally get to see the missing Nutshells. And see several unfinished Nutshells.