Meet Danette Wolpert.
Q: Tell me a little bit about what you do, where you do it, and why you do it?
A: I am the founder and the executive director of the Illuminate Film Festival, which is currently the world’s premier festival for conscious cinema. Our mission is to elevate consciousness and inspire personal community and planetary transformation. We were the first of its kind and since then there have been several other companies and entities that are starting to do much of the same thing. We do a lot of the searching for all the great films that happen to serve this mission. We have a team year-round that’s constantly looking for these cinematic gems that are going to inspire the best in people.
Q: What inspired or led you to do what you do?
A: I have spent probably the last 20 years of my life getting closer to my purpose. I went to business school and majored in Engineering. That was my first career. I enjoyed what I was doing. It was supposed to be the dream job, yet my heart wasn’t full. One day I was sitting at a client’s office in Chicago, when I happened to look over my shoulder and I saw this magazine open on the table next to me. The article showed a woman that was scaling a mountain. I thought that woman is truly embodying her dreams and her passion. About three or four months later, I left Ernst & Young. I set out on a path to find out what I’m supposed to be doing on this planet. That eventually led me to Sedona to start a conscious film festival. I went into the film business after that because I felt film has this incredible capacity to enlighten, inspire, educate and catalyze changes slowly but surely.
Q: How long have you lived or worked in Sedona?
A: Over 9 years.
Q: What has your transformation been through this?
A: Illuminate has been my teacher in so many ways. In 2018, I was diagnosed with an extremely rare condition that caused a brain tumor. Had I not spent the six years prior watching hundreds, if not, thousands of films about health wellbeing, healing the mind, body connection, perseverance human potential and our ability to really create miracles in our own bodies. If I had not done all of that, I would’ve had no idea what to do when I got this diagnosis. Today, I am a hundred percent healthy because of the combination of Western medicine, and my own personal healingjourney. Even the surgeons and the doctors down at Barrow consider me a mystery case. Also, it has given me more insight as a person, as a leader, as a partner, as a stepmom and it’s really like a guide to how to become the best version of me.
Q: When do you generally hold the festival?
A: We usually are in May or June of every year, but this year we’ve pushed it to fall, I had made that decision in December when Omicron was just starting. Let’s hope that this is the last variant and by the fall, people will be right ready to fully come back into theatres. Actually, COVID was a silver lining because we were forced to go virtual in 2020. Now we’re going be hybrid forever. We’re offering both in-person and virtual screenings. As a result, we expanded our audience into 84 countries. COVID basically drove me crazy, but I’m healthy thankfully and it pushed us to new heights. Now, we have screenings online every other month. We have even built our own streaming platform for all 84 countries.
Q: How many people are involved in your team?
A: At its largest, probably around 50 plus all the shift volunteers that come help take tickets and whatnot.
Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in Sedona?
A: You mean other than my fiancé, the love of my life, who I met at a martini bar? He is the best thing that has happened to me, for sure. He is the most incredible guy. We’re hopefully getting married, a few things got in the way…brain tumors and COVID and things like that, but it will happen. Aside from him, I have met some incredible people through the festival, even though they don’t live here. One of my favorite persons is Michael Franti, who is a fabulous musician. To be honest, I barely knew who he was. He is so authentic. He suffers from depression and anxiety and yet his music is so happy and joyful. It’s because I really truly understood him as a person and how he sings to himself and tries to bring everybody closer and be more connected. I even made my step kids listen to him for a whole summer. I’ve stayed in touch with him ever since and that’ll always be like one of my favorite memories.
Q: What’s your favorite restaurant in Sedona?
A: It has to be Mariposa. I came from Miami – a big city moved to a small town and occasionally would miss that little bit of Latin flair and swank. And it so feels like home.
Q: If you could choose anyone (dead or alive) with whom would you love to have lunch or dinner? Why?
A: I would go with Oprah. First of all, she’s overcome so much adversity in her life to become this incredible leader and influencer as an African American woman breaking all those boundaries. That’s so inspiring. She also followed her spirit. I even remember when I was in high school and my mom would be watching TV and Oprah would be on. She would have these little segments called ‘Remembering Your Spirit’. It definitely captured me even as a 16-year-old kid. That was her passion and she followed that even when the world was not ready for the mind, body, spirit stuff.
Q: What advice would you give to a crowd of people?
A: I would just say, honor yourself, and embrace a hundred percent of who you are. I came from Miami and people tried to be someone who they were not, and then that would make them feel better. And yet I moved to Sedona because I found my people, I found this town is full of so many incredibly authentic people, who do honor and are proud of who they are.
Q: Anything I have not asked you you’d like someone to know about you?
A: I guess most people wouldn’t know that I’m South African. I was born in Johannesburg, even though I don’t sound like it, if I had stayed just a few more years, I still might have a sexier accent. Ha-ha! Also, I was an incredibly committed and enthusiastic salsa dancer. And then, every 10 years of my life, I usually tear out a huge page of my life because there’s going to be a giant reboot. What I tend to do is try something I’m really scared of.