Turning a Personal Search Into a Feature Documentary
MY ROLE
Writer / Director
Overview
In 2007, while traveling in Warsaw, I fell in love with a Polish woman named Weronika. We spent only a five weeks together, but the experience stayed with me for nearly two decades.
In April 2026, following a difficult breakup, I returned to Warsaw to search for Weronika, and made a movie about it.
The Heart Is Made to Be Broken is a feature documentary that follows that journey, exploring love, memory, aging and creativity.
The Challenge
The film began with a simple question: How far have you flown for love?
What followed was a project that required balancing personal vulnerability with rigorous storytelling. The challenge wasn't simply documenting a search. It was creating a film that transformed an intensely personal experience into something audiences could see themselves inside.
The PROCESS
As writer, director and executive producer, I developed the project from concept through production, including story development, fundraising, international logistics, interview preparation, production planning and directing.
The film spans four countries and combines documentary footage, personal reflection, archival material and planned animated sequences.
Throughout production, I focused on creating a strong narrative structure that allowed space for uncertainty, so the story could evolve naturally rather than forcing it toward a predetermined conclusion.
Like the best documentaries, the project didn't end where I predicted, and is designed to keep the audience as off-balance as I was.
The Results
• Successfully raised production funding from independent investors.
• Directed and produced an international documentary shoot spanning Los Angeles, London, Warsaw and Berlin.
• Captured dozens of interviews and dozens of hours of footage, some of which will be used for the marketing campaign.
• Currently in post-production.
• Directed and produced an international documentary shoot spanning Los Angeles, London, Warsaw and Berlin.
• Captured dozens of interviews and dozens of hours of footage, some of which will be used for the marketing campaign.
• Currently in post-production.
What I Learned
The universal is in the specific.
While the film begins with a search for one person, it ultimately became an exploration of memory, regret, hope, forgiveness, and the ways we carry our past selves into the future.
The experience reinforced something I've learned repeatedly throughout my career: the more specific a story becomes, the more universal and emotional it can feel.