Filmmaker Makes More Than Just Film

By Ricky Marte

Wenham, MA - When it was announced that filmmaker Jody Hassett Sanchez was coming to speak at Gordon, at first it just seemed that we were getting another relatively well-known speaker who would come and preach to us about some cause that we were supposed to suddenly become interested about. I had my own expectations.

However, the second I met Hassett Sanchez, all of that went out the window. She was educated, and funny. She's a mom to one of the cutest baby boys I've ever seen. I was running sound in convocation that day, so I was one of the first to meet her that day. She has been all over the news and journalism business, working for CNN and ABC, so I was walking on coals for the first few minutes. I quickly realized how down to earth she was. She was very cooperative during the mic checks, and the following dialogue was very interesting and refreshing to hear, especially being a journalism student.

Jody Hassett Sanchez has so many great things to say during her dialogue with those who attended convocation last Friday. Most interesting to me was her mission to differentiate film making from making a documentary. There were a few things that she pointed out specifically. They were:

• the audience has to trust the filmmaker.
• the documentary must be real.
• that even while the director brings his/her own perspective, that he/she must be careful to check their own persepective as well.
• documentarists have to "draw line in sand."
• story must shed light on truth
• storytelling allows people to make own decisions in regards to subject matter
• that the main goal is to make a story that is well told and inspiring

It was very interesting to hear these things as a journalist. It has taught me to have diverse perspective on writing. After listening to Hassett Sanchez, what can be most easily and concretely taken away from this convocation, is that as a writer, you need to be real. No matter what the circumstance.