About

Welcome to www.michaeldsellers.com. To say that this is not a terribly focused blogsite would be an understatement. What you’ll find here is a mishmash — part blogsite, part journal, part repository for memoirs type recollections in anticipation of doing something more formal along those lines at some point in the future. I have occasional vague yearnings to break this down into separate sites in order to create something a bit more orderly and perhaps be a bit more efficient at finding audiences. But in the meantime, this is my hangout — my place where I go to remember things that are worth remembering, to vent about things that bother me, to recognize things and people that inspire me or cause me to think. At a minimum, it’s an online attic that my grandkids (none yet, thank you very much) and their kids can rummage through when they wonder what I was up to during my journey. If it becomes more than that, so much the better.

As for my actual official bio (of sorts) — it’s below:

MICHAEL D. SELLERS

Michael Sellers is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the University of Delaware, where he was a National Finalist Rhodes Scholar, and New York University, where he received a Master of Fine Arts in film-making. Following graduate school, he spent two years combining film production work in Los Angeles with participation as an environmental activist with Greenpeace in San Francisco—an experience that included work as Greepeace USA’s national information coordinator and extended anti-whaling voyages on the Rainbow Warrior in the Western Pacific.

In 1980 Michael left his film and environmental work for what would evolve into a 9 year stint as an undercover operations officer specializing in Soviet affairs for the Central Intelligence Agency. While with CIA, Michael served in Warsaw, Poland; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Moscow, USSR; and Manila, Philippines. In Moscow, during the final months of a two year assignment, he was arrested by the KGB and briefly imprisoned in the USSR for his part in strategic US espionage and counter- intelligence operations which have been written about in more than a dozen non-fiction books as Moscow Station and The Spy Who Got Away by Richard Kessler, and The Main Enemy by Milton Bearden and Pulitzer Prize winning NY Times journalist James Risen. He was released and expelled from the USSR in March 1986.

After Moscow, Michael went to the Philippines where the February 1986 “People Power” revolution had recently resulted in Corazon Aquino coming to power. Through four years and he worked closely with senior Filipino leaders to help re-establish democracy in the Philippines—a task undertaken in the face off an active Communist insurgency and 7 coup attempts by right-wing military. In early 1990 he received the Agency’s Intelligence Commendation Medal for «services rendered in direct support of the safety and survival of President Corazon Aquino during a violent coup attempt in that country»,–events that are recounted in substantial detail in a chapter of Bob Woodward’s award winning book The Commanders.

Throughout his time in the CIA Michael continued to pursue personal interests in film-making, music and writing. While in the Philippines he recorded an album of original music, then went on, as a part-time “hobby”, to produce albums by several Filipino artists for the local market, as well as one international album by acclaimed Philippine artist Freddie Aguilar. Emboldened by his venture into music producing and feeling that his CIA “adventure” had run its course, Michael left the CIA and re-launched his career as a writer and filmmaker.

Michael’s first step on the journey back to film-making was to create Pacwood Films, a Philippine based production company, under which label he produced three domestic Philippine movies, then began undertaking co-productions with international film companies, starting with Fortunes of War starring Martin Sheen, Michael Ironsides, and Haing Ngorr. Michael’s first film as writer/producer was Goodbye America in 1997, a film about the final days of the US Navy in Subic Bay and the effect off America’s long association with the Philippines on the people of that country. Goodbye America starred Michael York, James Brolin, Alexis Arquette, Rae Dawn Chong, and Corin Nemec and was distributed in the United States by Buena Vista and HBO. During this period Michael was based in the former Subic Naval Base, now a Special Economic Zone, where aside from film- making he developed eco-tourism programs with the native Aetas, rainforest dwellers who had previously provided jungle survival training for US Navy pilots.

During the late 1990’s as his film career progressed, Michael began spending more time in Los Angeles, where he executive produced a number of movies, then in 2002 wrote and directed Vlad (http://www.vladthemovie.com), a historical horror-adventure film shot on location in Romania with a cast that included Billy Zane, Brad Dourif, and Francesco Quinn, and which won multiple Best Picture and Best Director awards at various horror/fantasy film festivals. He followed that in 2005 with Karla, a true crime drama based on the court transcripts from the murder trials of Canada’s most infamous serial killers, Paul Bernardo and his wife and accomplice, Karla Homolka. Starring Laura Prepon, Misha Collins, and Tess Harper, Karla (www.karlathemovie.net) played the festival circuit in 2006 and was released in theaters in the US on January 12, 2007. In 2007 Michael returned to his environmentalist roots and wrote and directed The Eye of the Dolphin (http://www.theeyeofthedolphin.com) starring Carly Schroeder and Katharine Ross. In 2006 he also and wrote and produced Cryptid (http://www.cryptidthemovie.com), starring Lori Petty and Petey Pablo. Eye of the Dolphin and Cryptid are scheduled for release in spring and summer 2007, respectively .  In 2010 he directed Beneath the Blue, starring Paul Wesley, Michael Ironside, and David Keith. He is currently working on a screenplay, “The Fall of Saigon”, based on the New York Times Best Selling book of the same title by David Butler.