About Christina Tkacik

I got into filmmaking by taking Kevin Everson’s cinematography class here at U.Va. I’d wanted to make movies for a while but never had the tools/cameras/software with which to do it, so Kevin’s class was a huge revelation for me. Like in Ratatouille, when the rat hears that “anyone can cook,” Kevin shows us that anyone can be an artist and make movies. It is intimidating to make a movie, or to do anything creative for that matter, but Kevin makes it really accessible, especially for beginners. (Once you’ve gotten used to the camera, though, he starts pressuring you to think about things like form and purpose.) 

I started making documentaries this year. Fictional films are great, but they can require so much planning to do well ... I find it so much easier to just turn the camera on a regular person or a friend of mine and ask them to share their story. It helps me get out of my own head, too, and it’s a good excuse to ask people questions you otherwise wouldn’t really have a reason to ask them. (I learned so much about my brother when I interviewed him and his fiancée about communication ... it was crazy.) It inspires a sense of inquisitiveness and understanding of people. I remember meeting a documentary filmmaker named Esther Robinson who came to the Virginia Film Festival last year who told me that anyone who makes a documentary has a responsibility to protect people in their films, since those people are vulnerable. (And chances are, they didn’t ask to be in your movie!) So I think, in addition to being fun and creative, making documentaries forces you to empathize with people and to defend them.

As for my goals ... I want to go into documentary film editing, get health insurance and also travel around the world making my own documentaries. I’ve applied for internships in the U.S. and in Europe and am still waiting to hear back from film school (I applied to Baltic Film and Media School in Tallinn, Estonia). So as long as next year I’m not still living with my parents or lying in a ditch somewhere, I think I’m set.