About Us

You might wonder why a gastroenterologist is making legacy films.

A decade ago, during the hardest stretch of my life, I enrolled in a film class — a quiet attempt to chase a dream I'd kept to myself for years. It reminded me I wanted to live. It also planted the seed of what became L36.

My first film, LOVE | EVOL(ved), began as an inquiry into what makes for a peaceful, full life, told through conversations with scientists, theologians, and historians. One of them, Dervish Ismail, introduced me to a Kabbalah tradition called the Lamed Vav: in every generation, thirty-six righteous souls, unknown even to themselves, keep the world from collapse. The idea took root. I began to wonder whether someone in my own life might be one of the Thirty-Six — and gradually, friends and family found their way into the film alongside the experts.

LOVE | EVOL(ved) aired on PBS and traveled further than I expected. But the part that surprised me most was personal. What I'd set out to make as a film about healing turned out to be, at its heart, a love letter to my family.

That's the experience L36 was built to share. We help people make cinematic short films about the people they love — parents, partners, mentors, children — so that the act of paying close attention becomes part of the gift. Our hope is that the Thirty-Six aren't somewhere distant. They're often sitting across the table from us, if we're curious enough to notice.

What if cinematic storytelling, the kind that pulled me back from depression, could help others see the beauty in their own lives? What if we listened more carefully to the people closest to us and saw them more clearly?

L36 began as one physician's path through a hard season. It became a creative practice. Now, I hope, it's a small offering: a way to make storytelling a ritual, and to remind us that being present with the people we love is the legacy.

Thank you for being here at the start.

— Steven