Stephanie Argy's current obsession is creating complex multi-part narratives told using a combination of storytelling forms, including movies, illustrated books and whatever else can best convey the tale at hand. Her latest project, which she is devising with her partner Alec Boehm through their company Mental Slapstick, is an epic detective adventure set between 1895 and 1905, called "A Person Known to Me." Each part of the adventure takes place in a different geographic area of the United States and is fundamentally shaped by the real history and environment of that particular area; casts, crews and other collaborators are also drawn from that region, giving each part of the story a uniquely local voice.
Her explorations of these expanded, community-inspired forms of storytelling were sparked by her travels with the movies she co-wrote and directed, and by her interactions with audiences around the world. Her work as a writer/director began with a series of short films, including the mock 1933 newsreel, "Gandhi at the Bat," about the little-known incident when Mahatma Gandhi pinch-hit for the New York Yankees, then went on through her first feature, the spy caper adventure "The Red Machine."
Stephanie also worked as a journalist, which gave her the opportunity to educate herself in public by interviewing some of the most accomplished filmmakers in the world for hundreds of articles on the art, craft and technology of filmmaking and storytelling.