"Thank you so much for all of your help in finding me a job and serving as my reference. I really appreciate it -this and everything I have learned from you have certainly paid off because I got the job as assistant editor at VideoTakes AND the Partner's for Development job that you sent out about editing together a fundraising film for them. I am so excited and I just wanted to THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!"
 
-Alison Barnett
Class of 2006

"Working on documentary films is a bit like falling madly in love with the ugliest person in world -- it's wonderful, but not at all romantic."

"And it's not just the mind-numbingly long hours, the endless search througharchives of photos, letters, government documents, and census forms seeking exactly that thing that you're not quite sure of what it is. Of course there's the piles of accumulated debt, and the finished project that hardly anyone will ever see. No, everyone knows about all that. Ah, but what about the unending administrative details, the compromises you insist you WILL NOT MAKE and then go ahead and make, the colleagues you just want to throttle, and the inevitable realization that your abolute favorite moment in the film -- just has to be cut out. And oh yeah, every machine WILL break down when you can least afford it."

"The greatness of this program is that it captures all of that -- documentary filmmaking in all its miserable glory. Bring your pragmatism, bring your problem solving, bring your survival skills -- leave your romanticism at home. I loved it."
  
-Roger Munter
Class of 1994
 

"The skills and contacts I gained in Nina Seavey's program propelled me into the field of historical documentary filmmaking, and I am now an experienced Associate Producer, with field producing and script-writing under my belt, and with numerous broadcast credits from PBS, National Geographic, and The Discovery Channel. Thank you, George Washington U!"
  
-Ann Ramsey
Class of 1997
 
"The Documentary Center's program challenged me on multiple levels. Mentally, I learned an array of skills in a short period of time that were put directly into practice. Physically, I endured fifteen hour days in the editing room as our group pushed to finish our film. Personally, I came to fully understand the meaning of cooperation, compromise, and even conflict as our class worked to create one film based on sixteen different visions of what the film should be. Filmmaking is an intense process: this course lets you experience it full on."
   
-Amy Howard
Class of 1999
 

"The program at the GW Institute for Documentary Filmmaking is a solid choice for career-changers who want to develop filmmaking skills based in theory and practice, but do not want to commit to two full years of film school. For me, the program was a great fit. After finishing the GW course, I left my job and threw myself into the filmmaking field full time -- a move I would never have made without the knowledge and skills gained in the GW course."

"Completing the course is a rigorous, demanding experience, particularly as the students make their own film in the last two months of the program. This experience in particular mirrors exactly the experience of the profession that I now call my own."
  
-Courtenay Singer
Class of 2001
 
"The Institute for Documentary Filmmaking offers students a unique chance to engage in the real world processes of production at every level. The honing of story development skills is at the heart of the program, in an effort to turn students not just into filmmakers, but storytellers of the highest order. Thoughtful instruction on camera, lighting, audio, and state-of-the-art editing equipment allows student to realize both the possibilities and the problems inherent in telling stories on screen. Students can count on getting constant support in addressing the many creative and technical complications that can plague the professional filmmaker; learning indispensible problem solving skills. Best of all, the program is truly "on the job" training. Students get to play all the many and varied creative roles that make filmmaking such an enriching, collaborative effort. The institute's director has a motto: "enjoy the process." After my training there, I continue to just that."
   
-Tom Wentworth
Class of 1996