Reflecting on the Green Divide - A Mini Documentary

Filming my documentary has been refreshing. Literally. Because I did my mini doc on the executive order passed by the Trump administration to increase clear-cut logging in national forests and parks, I got to visit many national forests I didn’t even know were a day trip distance and reminisce on my time last summer in the Pacific Northwest.

A picture my mom took of me at Mount Rainier last summer

            At first, I was going to do my mini doc on the firing of park rangers, but as time passed, I wanted to dive deeper in my project where I could really connect with it. I’ve been to a few national parks in my 19 years but have been raised in forests. I lived in the trees as a kid and when I heard of the executive order passed, I felt kind of backstabbed. Hearing that the trees I use to climb as a kid could be logged made me want to spread light on the situation many people didn’t know.

            Through the journey of my mini doc (or my digital storytelling all together), I didn’t just learn how to handle a camera or edit footage—I learned a new creative language.  It’s like learning a new dialect, one where visuals, dialect, and editing become vocabulary that’s engraved in my brain forever. This has changed how I communicate with my colleagues, making it possible to share not only a system but a mutual language rooted in intention and creativity.

         Another thing I had to improve on was time management. Getting footage across different forest locations, managing interviews, gathering extra footage online, and editing it all taught me how to lead with structure without losing flexibility. Planning and management are the key for efficiency and creative thinking.

A picture I got at the Blue Ridge Parkway of a waterfall I saw while driving