Meet VT-based Actor/Filmmaker Alex Dee
Alex Dee is a “jack of all trades” actor, director, writer and editor of film. He lives in Bennington, VT. Visit his Saints Alive Podcast website for his radio-theatre podcast, featuring “stories of the saints for our young saints in the making.”
CATHOLIC ARTIST CONNECTION: Where are you from originally, and what brought you to Bennington, Vermont?
ALEX DEE: My wife and I moved back home to Vermont after living outside of Boston and in Los Angeles for a few years. It’s been great to be back home with family.
What do you see as your personal mission as a Catholic working in the arts?
My mission as a Catholic artist is to tell stories worth telling: to move hearts to beauty, truth and ultimately Christ.
Where have you found support among your fellow artists for your Catholic faith?
It been amazing to find this incredible network of Catholic artists that have reached out to us to contribute to Saints Alive. It really is a small Catholic world!
What is your daily spiritual practice?
I start my day with a morning offering and make sure to end it with a nightly rosary. The beauty of creating Saints Alive has been the privilege of feeling them by my side throughout the day, and learning from their holiness.
Describe a recent day in which you were most completely living out your vocation as an artist.
My life as an artist is filled with long hours of hard work with Christ (and coffee) fueling me through it. I just completed a directing fellowship with the Moving Picture Institute and between script writing, practicing scenes and workshops, I was editing together episodes for the radio theatre podcast I co-founded, Saints Alive. My life as an artist is hectic and beautiful: always pushing me to learn more and meet creative challenges head on.
What are your top 3 pieces of advice for Catholic artists post-graduation?
1. Pursue Christ first. He’s the one that will ultimately guide you as an artist.
2. Find trusted mentorship among Catholic peers that are successfully pursuing the arts and are on fire for their faith
3. Work hard, and when you think you’re working hard enough work harder. There’s this faulty way of thinking within the arts that if you’re talented, things will be easy. You need the God given talent, and then you put that to work. Everyday.