After arriving in California to pursue a career in film, Mormon raised Tasha Oldham soon discovered that most people she ran into had gross misconceptions about her religion. "I was always battling these stereotypes about Mormons, and people not understanding what their lives were really like," says Oldham. "At first, it was frustrating, but then it got me curious - I wanted to discover more about Mormonism myself." That's when Oldham, who began her career as p.a. on David Lynch's Lost Highway and eventually found work as a script supervisor, traveled back to Utah to make a doc about Mormon women. "One of the issues I wanted to investigate was homosexuality," says Oldham. "First, I was meeting with lesbian Mormons, but that didn't work out because they kept leaving the church. Then I started looking for Mormon women who married gay men." It was at that point that Oldham discovered the story for her breakthrough film, The Smith Family. Oldham's film chronicles the story of Kim and Steve Smith and their two children, a once picture-perfect Mormon family thrown into turmoil when Steve, now out of the closet, tests positive for AIDS. Filmed and edited over the course of four years, The Smith Family launched the 2002 season of POV for PBS (it was picked up at the 2001 IFP Market) and recently took home a DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary in addition to a number of other festival prizes. "I never really set out to become a documentary filmmaker, but this story fell upon me and I felt that I needed o tell it," says the 31-year-old Oldham, who is currently developing an ensemble comic drama set in Salt Lake City with her Small Town Productions producing partner Noelle Wright. " I think the great stories kind of find you." -Matthew Ross