After he graduated from CA in 2000, he studied religion and English at Oberlin College, without a clear career plan.

 

“I thought that if I studied what interested me, jobs would be available, or I would create a job that made the most sense,” Boris said.

His first stop after Oberlin was Cordova, Alaska, a small town near Prince William Sound. There, he did an internship with an environmental organization working on indigenous land rights.

 

In 2005, he decided to start graduate school in international relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. When his flight out of Los Angeles International Airport was canceled, he watched as passengers berated the airline representative who had delivered the news of their disrupted travel.

 

“I bought him a sandwich and told him that everything was going to be okay,” said Boris.

 

The airline worker must have remembered the kind gesture, because when Boris saw his newly issued ticket, he had been upgraded to business class. Sitting in the seat behind him was a film producer headed to India to produce a narrative film.

 

“He showed me the script for the project, and I read it on the plane,” said Boris. “We got off in Frankfurt, and I gave him my thoughts about the script. One month later, I was on the set in South India, informally walking around as a producer, learning the business.”

 

Boris went on to finish his master’s degree, but he also started to take on advising positions for independent films. His title is often “producer” or “associate producer,” but in that capacity, he might find himself doing a range of work: researching scripts, managing staff, finding financial backing, advising during pre- and post-production and networking for distribution.

 

In short, he can be involved in “the whole life cycle” of a film.

 

Most recently, he served as producer on the documentary “You’re Looking at me Like I Live Here and I Don’t” which has been shown at film festivals around the world and was been picked up for broadcast by PBS.

 

The film looks at Alzheimer’s Disease through the eyes of a woman who is living with the disease. The project began as a narrative film, but when the actor who was going to play the person with Alzheimer’s Disease became ill, a chance encounter with Lee Gorewitz, a woman living in a California residential care center, led the film in a new direction.

 

“We realized that right in front of our nose we had an extraordinary subject for a documentary film,” said Boris. “Her charisma, her exuberance and her spirit were intact, even though her mind was not what it used to be. She is an incredible woman who has a lot to teach us.”

 

Boris remembers CA as a school that “encouraged exploration.” In particular, he credits his history teacher, Jim Blanas, for leading him to think for himself. “High school can be a time of conformity,” Boris said. “He encouraged the opposite.”

 

Boris continues to produce documentaries, but producing films is not his full-time job. Most of his time is spent as a strategist and advisor not only for films but also for start-up companies and non-profit organizations. Still, producing documentaries will always appeal to him for one reason.

 

“I believe in the power of story.”