Making films wasn’t on David’s lifetime list of things to accomplish. “It was an early midlife shift,” he says. But storytelling is something he’s always been interested in (he has a master’s degree in mythology)—so filmmaking was a natural, if unexpected, fit for him. “My dad wrote short stories,” David says, adding that there’d been talk about making a movie, but the project never materialized. “I had just finished grad school, and I said, ‘Let’s do it.’” David launched Back 40 Films, and the movie Simple Things, based on his dad’s writing, was released last summer to national acclaim. Now, David is working on a documentary about hemlock trees in the Smoky Mountains, and another film based on The Mommy Chronicles, co-authored by Charlottean Sara Behnke, is in the works. “My dream is to go to the Academy Awards and drive up to the Kodak Theatre on a red tractor,” David laughs.

What he likes most about skirt!? I like the look of it—it’s inspiring and it’s also creatively put together. And you guys throw great martini parties.

And wearing a skirt? Freedom, baby! Liberation.