It's been a couple of years since OMC checked in with Brooke Maroldi, the woman behind the Oriental pharmacy documentary, "Death of a Corner Drugstore."

It would be an understatement to say that she's been busy, juggling multiple solo and collaboration projects while training a new puppy and rennovating a three-story house. Like the vibrant city she was born in, it seems Brooke Maroldi never sleeps.

Recently, her lifestyle -- one that includes shooting documentaries in Alaska and cocktailing with local producers -- took its toll: Maroldi responded to this interview from a hospital bed in Columbia Hospital. But despite her current downtime, Maroldi remains fired up about her projects, about Milwaukee and even manages to maintain a healthy sense of humor.

OMC: Do a lot of people in Milwaukee think of you as "the woman who made the documentary about the Oriental" or do you have other projects that received just as much attention?

BM: That does tend to be the thing I'm most recognized for, even though I've done plenty of other work since then. But hopefully that'll change when "The Obnoxious Tourist" and some other projects are finished.

OMC: What are you working on these days?

BM: "The Obnoxious Tourist" which is about my two trips to Alaska last year. I've traveled a fair bit, but mostly to urban destinations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, never to a very isolated area. I didn't intend to shoot a documentary up there, but I brought my little tourist camera, Blinky -- I name all my cameras, because they're like pets to me; the other two are Gigi and Spike.

I also brought lots of naïve expectations about what Alaska was and wasn't supposed to be like. This piece is about letting go of that kind of baggage so you can see what's really there. It's a zen travel comedy. I was in Alaska the second time in October last year and it was very strange to work on a humorous piece in the wake of September 11, but I think I'm ready to do it now.

Last Spring, I shot and edited Theatre X's "Chomsky 9/11" because I thought it was a very important and ambitious work. I've admired John Schneider and David Ravel for a long time and this was a great way to work with them. I hope to re-shoot it in such a way that it is expanded beyond the walls of the theater, perhaps in a way comparable to Spalding Grey's work. I'm very upset about what's going on in the world now, and can't figure out a way to do anything about it other than in my work.

I've also formed a new production company, Go-Go Projects, with three other producers here in Milwaukee: Tess Gallun, Claudia Looze and Alison Rostankowski. I'm very excited about it. We've worked together in different ways before and realized that we have a similar work ethic and ways of dealing with people. It started with mutual respect for each others and work which lead to friendship, then trading favors on jobs, and after many long, hard nights of drinking we realized it'd be great to work together on long-term projects. We're in pre-production for a documentary that Tess is directing, "From Go-Go Boots to Combat Boots," which is about the impact that female war photographers have had on our images of war since WWII. I think it's a great idea. We're all going to take turns directing.

My husband, Greg Ryan, is producing a video that promotes the city of Milwaukee to young professionals who are thinking of moving here. It shows that Milwaukee is a tech-savvy city with a lot to offer. Josh Adams from Mindpool is directing it and I'll be editing it. You can find out more about it at www.milwaukee-video.com.

I'm also doing projects with different artists here, particularly all*cin productions. Allyson Bahr and Cinnamon Rossman run one of the few performance arts groups here; they're always taking chances and are very open to trying new things. I just love working with them because I never know what's going to happen at their events and they're such intensely creative individuals. I've documented three series with them this year, making videos for about 30 different artists. It's challenging because I shoot without knowing what will happen and it keeps me on my toes. With the editing, I try to keep true to the original performance but also take it to another level so that the piece stands on its own as a video.

OMC: Wow. That's a lot of commitments. How do you do it?

BM: I get bored easily, so I need to have a lot of things going on at once. The best is when I'm shooting one video, editing another, travelling somewhere great to research yet another, and releasing something else. But that's rare.

Sometimes I just kind of break down from exhaustion. I'm writing this from Columbia Hospital, where I've been for the past few days for double pneumonia, and I'm climbing the walls. But I think I ended up here because I was overdoing things. My mother has been sick a lot this past year, and I've gone back East to visit her quite often and that's been stressful. I don't think you can "do it all"-- something has to give somewhere; so it becomes a matter of prioritizing. I'm still trying to figure out how to work like crazy without the occassional burnout. I'll let you know when I figure it all out.

OMC: I still can't get over how many projects you are juggling. How many hours a night do you usually sleep?

BM: I've had chronic insomnia since I was a little kid. I remember seeing sad things on TV about starving children in Africa and it would keep me up at night because I would worry about them. I'd average about four or five hours a night. It's only a problem when you want to go to sleep, but can't turn off your brain to get proper rest. For the past few years I often use that late nighttime to work. But I just got a puppy, Lafayette, two months ago and now my insomnia has completely disappeared! He's running me ragged, so I'm going to enjoy sleeping like a normal person while this lasts. (By the way, Lafayette is named after Lafayette Place where Greg and I renovated a three-story Queen Anne Victorian house this summer.)

OMC: Tell us about your company, Magpie Media. Are there many other people involved or is it just you?

BM: I hire people when I need crews, but I do most of the work myself. A lot of the work is editing, but I also shoot and write scripts.