For Immediate Release: August 13, 2004

(TORONTO) A film "Renaissance woman", Oren Siedler's path through the medium has taken her from the court of "kitsch king" John Waters to commercials in Australia and - with her new film Bruce And Me - to the most personal, soul-bearing edge of documentary filmmaking.

A then-and-now chronicle of life on the road with her outlaw dad, Bruce And Me addresses a lifetime of mixed emotions about a grifter childhood. The funny and moving film has amounted to a personal epiphany, a realization by Oren that reliving her bizarre story could offer up answers - and new questions - to her soul-searching.

With the support of her family (including wayward father Bruce), Oren revisited her outlaw adventures and traveled the world, filming her now-farflung family. Her probing questions about Bruce and her gene pool peeled away layer after layer of insight into a family that could have been made up by Kerouac.

Shepherded by sought-after Canadian producer, Ed Barreveld, Bruce and Me is an Australian/Canadian co-production and was the "buzz" pitch project at the 2003 AIDC (Australian International Documentary Conference) where it was picked up with a licence to broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and got an international and theatrical distributor Films Transit on board. The doc is now being considered for the Opening Night Film Gala at the 2005 AIDC.

The film also appeared as a pitch project at the 2003 Toronto Documentary Forum as part of Hot Docs, where interest around the table resulted in an increased broadcast commitment from Life Network in Canada. It continues to attract serious interest from various national and international broadcasters. In addition to ABC and Life Canada, YLE (Finland), the Independent Film Channel and Discovery Health are confirmed broadcasters.

Oren is now in post production on Bruce And Me, and continuing to "find herself" as she pores over footage. Whatever the final cut reveals, Oren Siedler has served notice of her status as a filmmaker to watch.