CREW REVIEWS

I had a life-changing experience on Actuality Media’s Documentary Outreach in Istanbul in 2013. I was producer for a documentary on the International Blue Crescent’s psychosocial efforts with Syrian refugee children, and it was the most challenging, exciting and inspiring month of my life. Not only did I walk away with a short documentary to add to my portfolio, but the newsgathering and networking I did had me publish two feature articles for major international news media and has provided me with career opportunities that I still enjoy to this day. And that’s not even taking into account the incredible cultural immersion, wild adventures and the amazing friends and local connections you make! I can’t recommend these outreaches to any aspiring filmmaker, storyteller and adventurer enough! *I should note that I now work as a part time employee of the company and location coordinator. My work with Actuality Media has not influenced this review (I work with them because of how much I loved my experience!).

Overall, the program was a valuable learning and life experience. Concerningly, however, Actuality Media did not arrange for Moroccan filming permits, resulting in the police shutting down our shoot and our changemaker having to pay a bribe.

It’s impossible not to learn a ton from the process of making a documentary start to finish in a few weeks in a foreign country. You learn a lot about the storytelling process, you learn a lot about the organization that you’re working with, you learn about the culture, and you learn about your place as a foreigner and filmmaker. The program was mostly hands-off, basically you partnering with other students and going at the filmmaking process on your own. It was challenging in so many ways but really rewarding and a lot of fun. As far as criticism goes, perhaps you would get higher quality instruction or a more motivated peers in a more academic program. Only do this program if you are looking for a mix of fun, touristy experiences, and film experiences. As far as balancing those two things, this program is pretty good. You will have fun, hang out, and make a film at the same time.

This program provides an incredible opportunity to go abroad, learn a lot about documentary filmmaking, and meet incredible people. You get to be a part of a film crew and create a film about a non profit organization. From research to planning to shooting to editing, the amount of experience I gained will be crucial to my future.

I loved my experience with Actuality Media on the documentary outreach to Nicaragua. I learned a lot and had a fun time, not just with the students in my program and the supervisors, but the local we met as well.

I went abroad with actuality media the summer of 2016 from May to June in Bolivia. Overall I would 100 percent recommend this program to any students who think documentaries or film might be for them. it is a HUGE learning experience you cannot get anyway else but being there and doing it. The food was hard for me because I don’t eat meat so take into account nutrition since you’ll most likely be going to a third world country like I did. The excursions are very heavily hiking based so if you don’t like that you might want to chill at the hostel. My only regret with this program is the fact that I went as a producer. I had never worked on a group film project or been a producer so that was a big element of stress for me because I didn’t want to let anyone down. Really make sure the position you sign up for is in your field of interest because mine wasn’t at all. I would also suggest the people at actuality media update their filming equipment because it was a bit old and we ended up using a crew memebers camera. All that aside if you’re thinking about going… do it! You’ll never regret an experience in a new culture!

I really enjoyed my time in Tanzania with Actuality Media. For the most part, everything that we learned was pre-planned and thought out. I never felt in danger, and the program directors knew the best ways for us to get around.

I am so thankful I decided to apply for this program. It completely changed my life. I now not only view storytelling in a different way, but I also view the world differently because of this program.

It was great. Everybody was really nice and I learned a lot of Spanish. The program kicked my butt but a good way. I learned a lot of things that I wouldn’t know otherwise and I would recommend it to anybody.

Although the program and experience in a foreign country were amazing, I think there is still some room for improvement in the vetting process of the students to participate in the outreach. I will forever be linked with the change makers and even our hosts, but regret having to work with some of the individuals that were paired with me.