Caroline Walker's Bio

“The thirst for truth is in us from the time we’re born. As we grow older, our self-interest can drastically lead us away from the truth that we need. Investigating Sergei Kourdakov’s life taught me that I should always be open to the possibility that I’m deceived about something, yet without losing hope to know the truth. The moment that I say I see everything clearly is the moment I am blinded. This openness could be called humility. The more humility – the more understanding; the more presumption – the more error.”

Caroline Walker was born in Beaumont, Texas in 1967 and became interested in screenplay-writing her senior year of high school. At Baylor University in Waco, Texas, Caroline earned a Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Service and Professional Writing. After graduation in 1990, she continued to pursue screenwriting when not working at a training and marketing video production company in Fort Worth, Texas. In 1992, Caroline felt called to give up her screenwriting ambitions for overseas missions work and joined Campus Crusade for Christ (“New Life” in Russia) for a nine-month mission trip to Novosibirsk, Siberia. In Novosibirsk, she read for the first time Sergei Kourdakov’s 1973 autobiography, The Persecutor, and was fascinated to learn that Kourdakov was born in Novosibirsk. She was especially interested in a chapter about Kourdakov’s childhood where he describes how a scientist in Academic City – the very town where she was living -- adopted him for a short period of time. She checked the science institute’s archives in Academic City, but they showed no trace of this scientist’s last name. However, Caroline still felt the story could be authentic and wondered why such a wonderful story had never been made into a movie.

After returning to the U.S., Caroline earned her teaching certificate from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas and began teaching high school English and journalism in neighboring Orange. In her spare time, she began to write again and felt that Kourdakov’s story would be a natural fit for a screenwriter’s debut. Uncertain if she should pursue the idea, she prayed about it in 1995 and saw in her mind’s eye herself as a pen in God’s hand. Her interpretation was that God would allow her to adapt Kourdakov’s story to the screen. After three years of research and writing two different screenplays about Kourdakov, Caroline quit, mainly because she was unable to find out who owned the copyright to The Persecutor.

In 1998 Caroline moved to Atlanta, Georgia and began working as a training consultant at a manufacturing plant in Hickory, North Carolina. She often wondered what to make of the earlier vision of the pen. In 1999 she became certain that a documentary about Kourdakov should precede any motion picture drama and planned a trip to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia where Sergei claimed to have led more than 150 raids on Christians.

In 2000 Caroline founded the nonprofit, Sergei Project, Inc. to underwrite the documentary, and, for the next four years co-produced Forgive Me Sergei with director Damian Wojciechowski, SJ. The film was completed in April 2004 and has won various awards around the world. Instead of the role of screenwriter, Caroline appears in the film as an investigator.

Sergei Project, Inc. is now called Lampstand Documentaries, a 501(3)c nonprofit company dedicated to documenting good works around the world and truthfully reflecting marvelous stories.

Caroline currently works in Houston, Texas as a communications specialist at an international oil & gas company.