Corrinne Theodoru

Occupation: Photographer, Documentary Filmmaker

Website: www.corrinnetheo.com

Instagram: corrinnetheo

HOW DID YOU IDENTIFY YOUR PASSION AND THE WORK THAT SATISFIED YOU VERSUS WORK THAT JUST PAID THE BILLS?

At the age of 15 I knew I wanted to work in the film industry. I had a passion for film and photography (and dance) that was consistent, and that passion steered me through film school and onto film sets. I spent 15 years working as a freelance script supervisor and editor on projects of all kinds (commercial, television, features and docs).

It wasn’t until the last few years of working in the film industry that I finally began to lose my passion and recognize that I was taking the work simply to pay my bills…inside the recognition was a strong loss of my “why,” and the combination of challenging and exhausting experiences, both professional and personal, helped me to recognize I had outgrown this aspect of my filmmaking journey.

Trusting my intuition to step away, to trust my vision of building something for myself, is when a glimmer of passion began to return. The work is hard and takes a tremendous amount of focus, yet the satisfaction I have found in building my own empire has been wonderfully rewarding. and rejuvenating. And all of my years in and skill sets learned from the film industry truly infuse my new direction.

WHO WILL ETERNALLY BE A WOMAN YOU ADMIRE AND RESPECT, AND WHY?

This is a wonderful and powerful question!

The women I eternally admire and find inspiration from are Wilma Mankiller (Cherokee), Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabekwe, Ojibwa) , Dr. Jessica Metcalfe (Turtle Mountain Chippewa), Beth Kirby, Amanda Chantal Bacon and Margaret Moth.

These women have all been fearless in their visions, both personal and for the collective. Simply fearless.

IN LIGHT OF YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF OUR HASHTAG #WHYITRIBE, WHY DO YOU THINK IT IS IMPORTANT TO CELEBRATE WHO WE ALREADY ARE TODAY?

Making the choice to celebrate who you are today as an individual creates greater power in celebrating who we are as a collective. And the power inside the collective is what helps the individual to heal.

The celebratory power of the collective helps the individual to feel supported and seen, encouraging the individual to take ownership of and responsibility for their lives and their journey towards an empowered existence. And when we begin to feel empowered, when we begin to see that we are valuable and worthy, we begin to create our lives with the awareness that celebrating who we are and who we have become simply feels good.

NAME A TIME RECENTLY WHEN YOU SAID SOMETHING GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF/HOW DID THAT MAKE YOU FEEL?

Recently, I’ve been taking ownership of my intelligence and my skills of observation and self-awareness. These skills have lent themselves to my creating a successful film career, in addition to a myriad of opportunities and personal connections. Finally saying to myself and to my community, “Yes, you know what? I’m smart and observant af and my choices have created an empowered, creative, experienced, and confident life for myself. And that has made me great at my work” has made me feel a stronger sense of pride and focus. And the response I receive in moments like this is tremendous and encouraging!

WHY DO YOU THINK WOMEN SHY AWAY FROM CELEBRATING OR PRAISING THEMSELVES SO MUCH?

At the end of the day, I truly don’t believe that we can pinpoint this down to one or two reasons. Clearly there’s patriarchal programming in our society at large. And this programming is passed down the familial lineage through learned behavior.

Yet there’s also the matter of the individual simply making the choice to say yes or no to themselves. It takes strong will and focused intention to break the mental chains for oneself, and finding the path towards this direction isn’t always accessible. So, I do believe that if certain women that have the ability and the access and the experience to change our lives, and if we continue to share our revelations and successes – and give back in any way possible – it will have a ripple effect.

Essentially, the more we show each other how to self-celebrate, the more of us will begin to self-celebrate!

HOW DO YOU OVERCOME THE TENDENCY TO DISCREDIT COMPLIMENTS YOU ARE GIVEN?

I have overcome the tendency to discredit compliments by practicing the art of receiving. Practice is what has helped me to grow…

With an intention of self-awareness, I began to notice that my pattern of refusing compliments was not making me feel good, or empowered, or confident. In fact, I was rejecting compliments even when I felt the same way about myself as the compliment that had been given! And when I began to compare how I felt when I did receive a compliment to not, the difference was powerful. When I did make the choice to receive, I would notice the feelings of confidence, empowerment and joy in my energy body, and that my sense of self worth and value had expanded.

So, I made the decision to begin the practice of saying “Thank you” to every compliment that came my way. Even when I felt internal resistance, I made the choice to say Yes to receiving. I made the choice to say Yes to the gifts that others had chosen to share with me. And that choice has continued to positively shape how I feel about my work and my talents.

HOW DOES SOCIETY REINFORCE THE IDEA THAT WE, AS WOMEN, ARE NOT ENOUGH AND HOW CAN WE TAKE THAT POWER BACK?

At the heart of it, most settler, colonial societies runs on archaic, violent, and boring mentalities of male and religious dominance and supremacy. And as these structures are beginning to crumble, I believe it’s most imperative to focus on what we want and are ready to rebuild for ourselves and our communities.

And so I believe We can take our power back by disengaging from these colonial structures of not-enoughness and breaking away from the conditioning of the system at large. By making these shifts we can create empowered lives, engaged collectives, and continue to reclaim our inherent wisdom as women.

Practicing effective self-care, making the choices to do the hard work to heal, saying Yes to your intuition and passions, letting go of blame and personal habits of disempowerment…these practices are absolutely in defiance of the patriarchy, because these habits break the codependency on a system that relies on oppression, suppression, fear mongering and the disconnection of its people.

WHY IS THE TRIBE MOVEMENT IMPORTANT?

The Tribe movement is important because women are ready to connect with themselves and with each other! This platform is a powerful container for us see ourselves and our empowerment in a safer, supportive and collectivized space. The Tribe is a movement for women, and women are ready to move.