One Strike
Productions
Film · Theatre · Performance · Media
One strike of a clapper — and the film begins.
One strike of a light — and the stage comes alive.
One shot. One night. Everything you have.
Stories don't wait for the right medium. Neither do we.
One Strike Productions was born from the belief that the most powerful stories are made by people who have something true — and something alive — to say. We don't make films and plays about women. We make them by women, for women, and from the full, complicated, hilarious, heartbreaking center of women's lived experience.
We are the match strike, the clapper board, the spotlight cutting through dark — and yes, the punchline that lands when no one saw it coming. Both things. Always.
Founded by Cynthia Millhorn — storyteller, educator, author, comedian, and creator of the fringe circuit hit Botticelli Babes — One Strike Productions brings scholarly precision and genuine comic timing to every medium it touches. Screen and stage are not opposites. They are two rooms in the same house, both lit by the same strike of a single, irreverent flame.
Narrative Film
Character-driven storytelling that puts women at the center of their own stories. Literary, precise, and emotionally unafraid. We are drawn to stories of grief, forgiveness, reinvention, and the quiet heroism of ordinary life.
Documentary
True stories told with the craft and intentionality of fiction. We seek subjects that illuminate the human condition — particularly the lives of women whose stories have not yet been given the screen they deserve.
Women's Stories
Female-led, female-made, female-centered. Stories that are rich, layered, and rooted — written from the kitchen and the classroom, from the hearth and the archive. Sophisticated without being cold. Warm without being simple.
Short Form & Media
Short films, spoken word on screen, performance documentation, and digital storytelling. The full range of the moving image — in service of the story that needs to be told.
One strike of a match
A single flame that starts everything. Light, warmth, fire. Transformative from a single moment.
One strike of a clapper
The language of film. One take. One shot. The moment the camera rolls and the story begins.
One strike of a key
The writer at the typewriter. One keystroke that begins the whole story. The word before the world.
One strike of a bell
Resonant, clear, lasting. The kind of sound that lingers long after it has gone silent.
One strike left
Resilience. The woman counted out, who comes back. Grief. Survival. Joy reclaimed against the odds.
Strike while the iron is hot
Urgency, craft, and the maker's hands. The moment that cannot wait. The story that must be told now.
We are building something. Come build it with us.
One Strike Productions is actively seeking collaborators, co-creators, and kindred spirits at every stage of production. We believe the best films are made in community — by people who trust each other, challenge each other, and share a commitment to stories that matter.
We are especially interested in working with:
Women writers with screenplays or adaptable narratives
Documentary subjects with compelling true stories
Directors, cinematographers & editors who center story
Producers & financiers aligned with our creative vision
Authors whose books deserve adaptation for the screen
Organizations supporting women in film & media
Cynthia Millhorn
Founder & Creative Director
- M.A., Communication & Storytelling Studies
- M.A., Liberal Studies
- Published Author
- Professional Storyteller
- Performing Member, Jonesborough Storytellers' Guild
- Founder, The Conservatory by Cynthia & Co.
- Founder, Conservatory Hearth Press
Cynthia Millhorn is many things — and she'll be the first to tell you, with a laugh, that she's never been good at picking just one. Storyteller. Author. Educator. Comedian. Fringe circuit hit-maker. Creator of Botticelli Babes — the show that watched audiences fall apart laughing while quietly having their minds changed about everything they thought they knew about women's history.
She performs with scholarly precision and comic timing in equal measure — equally capable of holding a room through grief and through laughter, often in the same hour. Her work spans live performance, literary publication, theatrical development, educational workshops, film, and visual media, unified by a single through-line: character-driven storytelling delivered with warmth, artistry, and the kind of wit that makes you feel like you've known her your whole life.
One Strike Productions is where all of it comes together — the scholarship and the standup, the tragedy and the game show, the footnote and the punchline — in service of stories worth telling on the biggest screens and the smallest stages.
One shot.
Make it count.
Whether you have a story, a script, a vision, a punchline, or simply a conversation you think we should have — reach out. The door at One Strike Productions is open to the right people and the right projects.