My Journey to Being a Travelling Documentarian
By: Catherine Kennedy
Tags: Filmmaking, Growth, Coming Of Age

When I was 6, the infamous question was presented to my Kindergarten class: what do you want to be when you grow up?

As someone who didn’t even know how to hold a pencil correctly, I had no idea what I wanted to do in the future. My first answer was to be a princess. Obviously, my teacher told me that that was not realistically possible, and asked me again. My second answer was to be a bus driver because I liked my bus driver. My teacher explained that this answer wasn’t great either, as I could reach for something better. Once again, my teacher asked what I wanted to be and to think of a normal career this time. I then answered cowgirl. Probably exhausted, my teacher allowed this, and during my Kindergarten graduation, I told all of my other classmates and their teachers that I wanted to be a cowgirl. If you knew me personally, you would know that I could never be a cowgirl. But this was the beginning of my career search.

When I was 10 years old, I would record music videos and horror trailers with my friends. I would always direct and help come up with the ideas. This, I assumed, was a pretty normal activity for kids growing up in the 2000s to do, so I didn’t believe that I could consider film as an actual career in my future.

At 14, I applied to New Jersey’s newest and most state-of-the-art high school, Cumberland County Technical Education Center. When applying, I had to pick a program of study. Engineering, allied health, I.T., cosmetology, law enforcement, or construction did not sound interesting to me, but communications and broadcasting sounded the tamest and easiest. Little did I know that the program would shift from an emphasis on communications to an emphasis on filmmaking. This would be when I started having an interest in filmmaking as a career. And once I realized that I wanted to be a filmmaker, the idea of traveling for my job came naturally.

So, I’ll be a traveling filmmaker. So what? What will I be filming? How will I get an income?

Then I got accepted into Montclair State.

I make films for things I feel are important to my life so I can look back on them when I’m older. Here, I made a video about my acceptance into Montclair. I had a lot of fun filming this, as I do with most films I create.

After seeing the “Congratulations!” onscreen, I kicked my career search into high gear. Another major interest I had was helping people and bringing awareness to climate change, so it made perfect sense to connect my interest with my desired career path. This is how I knew that I wanted to make documentaries about climate and social issues. This idea is perfect for someone who already has experience and an interest in filmmaking, as I can combine the two and still be able to travel and meet new people.

Although I haven’t gotten to create a climate change or social documentary yet, I know that I will be able to do so, as I’m on the right track by studying filmmaking as my major and environmental justice as my minor. I couldn’t imagine my life any other way, and once I have made my first documentary, I’m never looking back.