Name, Major and Minor, Graduation Year:
Olivia Wood, Major: Documentary Studies and Production, Minor: Environmental Studies, 2025
Hometown:
Boston MA
Why am I a Documentary Studies and Production major?
Well, I've always been obsessed with film, but I knew I wanted to do something that connected with real people and real places instead of sets and scripts, so I figured I'd try documentary films. Through this program, I learned the value of really listening to people's stories and seeing the world around me. I chose Documentary film as my major because it allows me to connect with the world around me in a really special way.
A course in the major that impacted me:
The Documentary Workshop was a class that had the biggest impact on me during my time at Ithaca College. I knew I could do all the different aspects of documentary work (legal work, interviews, budgeting, etc...) through my other courses but putting it all together to create one piece of work that I was proud of didn't happen until Doc Workshop and that's where I got the confidence to believe I could graduate and go and do this as my career.
What I learned while making: When I’m in the Water
Through my Doc Workshop project When I'm in the Water I learned how great it can feel to have an impact on your audience (even if it is for a brief moment.) After the Doc Workshop screening in December 2024 and sharing our film with close friends and family our team has had multiple people tell us how they could connect with our main subject Marci and her isolation. The third weekend of March, 2025, director Kennedy Laylon (Doc Studies ’25) and I travelled to the Atlanta Documentary Film Festival where our film premiered. Later that weekend, we found out our film won Best Student Documentary!
Something about me beyond my major:
I don't like to sit still too long, meaning I have a list of about a hundred places I am going to go as soon as I graduate. I am planning on having a van one day and that way my home can go everywhere I go and I can go everywhere the stories go.