Director Biographies 

C.D. Stelzer is an award-winning investigative journalist. He first began reporting on nuclear waste in 1991 for the Riverfront Times, St. Louis’ alternative weekly newspaper. In 2010, he revealed how workers and residents at a former Dow Chemical plant in Venice, Ill. had been chronically exposed to Cold War-era radioactive contamination without their knowledge for decades. The stories appeared in FOCUS/midwest online. The documentary The First Secret City is the result of years of work in collaboration with filmmaker Alison Carrick.

Alison Carrick is a St. Louis-based, independent filmmaker and writer. Her previous work has been screened at the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase (Close Up, 2011; The Waiting Hour, 2013) , and she has worked as a cinematographer on various local productions. This is her first feature-length documentary.  Carrick has bachelor degrees in English and Anthropology from the University of Kansas and an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

All original images and content © Stella Maris Productions