The News Is What We Make It

The News Is What We Make It Synopsis

When the same company owns all the TV stations in town, where can you turn for an alternative perspective? A high-schooler gets burned and turns insult into action.

More About The News Is What We Make It from Director Nickey Robare

As a second-year student at Hampshire College, I applied for the Hampshire film alumni internship program and was placed at a small animation studio in Portland, OR. I returned to intern there for two summers, during which time I fell in love with the medium. I wasn't very familiar with animation before my first summer, and was very disheartened to learn that commercial work is the most likely way to make a living at animation. Given my longheld
progressive political beliefs, the idea of spending the rest of my life making advertisements upset me.

All students at Hampshire must complete a yearlong thesis project, called a Division III project, during their final year. I had developed a passion for issues of media democracy, and realized that a film about the subject would make a perfect Div III project. I spent more than eight months writing, recording the soundtrack, building sets and characters, animating, and editing - working almost entirely by myself, with the support of my advisor, video artist Joan Braderman and my second committee member, experimental filmmaker Bill Brand.

Since I completed this project, it has been screened at festivals large and small, in church basements and punk house living rooms. My intention was to make media issues accessible and understandable to all people of all ages and backgrounds. I feel I accomplished this goal, and I hope the film can continue to be shown widely and reach as many people as possible.