In the1980's I traveled to the USSR on the 2nd Citizen's Diplomacy trip.  I was then invited by the youth communist committee to return to the Soviet Union and consult to sites where they were building sweat equity communities across the country: from Moscow to Vladivostak. On this trip I took a copy of book on PTSD a graduate student of mine had written.  This was translated into Russian, and for many years was the only book of PTSD in Russian.  A few years later, after the Berlin wall came down I returned to the region on a trip to Dagestan, a region in the Caucasus Mountains, with this former student to teach about trauma in a volatile region.  During this journey I heard a story that convinced me I needed to leave psychology and help tell stories that were important to know about.  I made a movie about this trip, and the man we were visiting who was working with art and martial arts to teach children about peace. Subsequently I was asked to take over a non profit, Iris Arts, that had the mission to produce and support socially relevant media, educational and artistic projects.  I have done this solely since the mid 1990's in a strange, but satisfying way.  I decided I would produce and support projects with sweat equity, and work with projects that caught my heart.   At the beginning this work I realized that these narratives had to be short, concise, compact if they were going to be viewed.  That we were entering an epoch on TMI (too much information), and that attention spans were limited.

Below are some of the shorts I have produced over the years.  There have been different epochs, different themes that moved me.  I moved away from videos into a particular kind of animation deconstructing the artwork of artist in trying to move deeper into the essence of their work; and then played for awhile with 3D animation, exploring how this could be used to enhance creative expression.  Some of these efforts were exercises, learning experiences, some were commissioned, some I am quite fond of.  All were produced solely by me, more often than not with music composed by friends of mine.  All contributions are scored in the credits of each piece.

Index of Shorts in order of appearance below:

• El Sol Llego - animation of poem by Guadalupe Urbina; music also by Guadalupe Urbina
• A Peaceful Warrior - Short about the work of Gusein and Olga in Dagestan using martial arts to teach peace to youth in the Caucasus.
• Soul of Oaxaca - animation using deconstructed elements from paintings by Roman Llaguno of Oaxaca.  Narrative by Verona Fonte based on interview with Roman about his paintings.
• Exposing Ansel Adams -  A short film presented at the Ansel Adams Centennial in Yosemite about Ansel's two eldest darkroom assistances.
• Quest For Justice - Short film about the Korean Comfort Women using their paintings to tell their story.
• Jaguar Woman - animation using music and deconstructed elements from paintings by Guadalupe Urbina.
• Origenes -  animation based of song Origenes by Guadalupe Urbina, using deconstructed elements from her paintings.
• Miracles of Each Moment - Short using paintings and narrative by Zen teacher Kaz Tanahashi.
• Karl Linn: Memorial 1923 -2005 - Images only of Karl throughout his life in Germany, Palestine, Switzerland, New York, Philadelphia, Berkeley. Throughout his life he sought utopian communities, moving on when disappointed.  He founded the urban garden movement in the US.
• Childhood in Germany: 1923 - 1934 -  Short about Karl Linn's formative years before escape to Palestine.  This is part of a digital media biography I created about his life, making multiple short about his life events, his mentors, his wisdom words.  This was created in the last year of his life at his request.  The original footage is housed at the Holocaust Museum in Berlin.
• Misra Yantra - Preliminary Study about concepts of TIME  and is an animation of the Misra Yantra a 60 foot high astonomical instrument at the Jantar Observatory in Delhi, India which was constructed in 1724.  Verona constructed and animated everything.
• Maya Tzolkin Chichen Itza - Preliminary Study about concepts of TIME  and is an animation of the observatory at Chichen Itza and the Maya Tzolkin calendar working.  Verona constructed and animated everything.
• Galileo Galilei Pisa Padua Years - Preliminary Study an animation about the Pisa Padua Years of Galileo's life.