About Changing Keys

Minneapolis native Billy McLaughlin astounded audiences with his innovative guitar technique and composing style. In the late 1990s, he began to lose control of his hand and arm and was soon unable to play his own music. Many thought his career was over when he was diagnosed with focal dystonia, an incurable neuro-muscular disorder. Billy had other ideas: He began the arduous task of retraining himself to play left-handed, one note at a time. Suzanne Jurva followed McLaughlin during these years. Through her eyes, we witness his miraculous and inspiring story.

About the Filmmaker

Suzanne Jurva is a producer/director with a broad range of experience and a clear vision of how to bring artful and creative film and television concepts into production. She has been involved in all forms of storytelling, from Tom Hank’s large screen IMAX film Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon to producing and developing for the smallest media, the mobile phone, as co-founder of Starcut, content media aggregator for Nokia Mobile Phones. In between the two extremes of media and technology, Suzanne worked as a feature film development executive at DreamWorks-SKG creating and heading the research department working on: Saving Private Ryan, Amistad, Minority Report, AI, The Lost World,  Gladiator, Prince of Egypt, The Peacemaker, Deep Impact, Men in Black, and The Lookout.  
 
Suzanne has won many film and television awards for producing/directing/writing for Wisconsin Public Television (6 documentaries), NBC News, FOX, MTV, BBC, Showtime and independently. One of 50 civilians chosen from leadership positions throughout the US, Suzanne was a member of the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference 61. She sits on many community, academic and professional boards, was elected as an Outstanding Young Alumni and inducted into the Academy of Arts and Sciences at Michigan Technological University.  She is currently working with the Library of Congress and in development on several other projects.