Our Story:
Tony and Elizabeth first met through a documentary film connection. Tony shot a bit of footage for Elizabeth’s documentary film, Chasing Portraits. It also turns out that we have a lot of other funny, “isn’t it a small world?!” connections. Tony, Elizabeth, and their respective spouses, have enjoyed many dinner conversations about books, films, and raising kids (we each have two boys). It was during one of those dinners that Tony and Elizabeth got to talking about ADHD, the power of stories, and the ways good storytelling inspires each of us to understand the world just a little bit differently.
Elizabeth Rynecki
Elizabeth’s narrative non-fiction memoir, Chasing Portraits: A Great Granddaughter’s Quest for Her Lost Art Legacy was published by NAL/Penguin Random House in 2016 and received a Kirkus Starred Review. She wrote, produced, and appeared in the documentary film, Chasing Portraits (distributed by First Run Features). She’s been featured in the New York Times, been a guest on NPR affiliate stations, and been a speaker at bookstores, libraries, book festivals, and film screenings around the world.
Elizabeth has a BA in Rhetoric from Bates College and an MA in Rhetoric and Communication from UC Davis. She lives in Oakland, California with her husband, two sons, and three black cats.
Tony Kaplan
Tony is an Emmy-nominated documentary director, cinematographer and filmmaker who has 20+ years of experience as a creative content lead in the film industry. He was part of the team that followed the production of Star Wars Episode II across four continents. He shot, edited or directed every making-of documentary at Pixar from The Incredibles (2003) to Elemental (2023).
Tony has a BA in History from UC Santa Cruz (’89) and an MA in Documentary Filmmaking from Stanford University (’98).