Most people would like to thank the academy after achieving critical acclaim or winning an award. However, Jeff Barrie, a geography/environmental studies alumnus who graduated in 1993, would like to thank the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television for rejecting him two years in a row.
“It forced me to choose another major as I was a senior and undeclared,” Barrie said. “That is what led me into environmental studies. My original plan was to be a film major, and I wasn’t given that opportunity so I pursued environmental studies as my fallback major. It was probably the best thing that happened to me. It has defined my career ever since.”
Years later, Barrie’s film “Kilowatt Ours” is finally coming to DVD and has been chosen as an official selection of the 2008 United Nations Association Film Festival.
Besides acknowledging his rejection from the film school, Barrie’s background deserves some of the credit, as he grew up in Nashville, Tenn. during an environmentally conscious time.
“I grew up in the 1970s when we had gas lines and gas shortages and a whole culture of conservation,” Barrie said. “That’s when I started learning about mountaintop removal and the destruction of beautiful, ancient mountains in southern Appalachia. I had the opportunity to make a film about our light switches and that destruction.”
However, Barrie’s initial passions were a little more out of this world. After viewing “Star Wars” on the big screen as an 8-year-old, Barrie became intrigued by the power of the film medium.
“It wowed me as much as it did the country and the world,” Barrie said. “From then I was interested in the movie theater and how it could be inspiring to mass audiences. I think “˜Star Wars’ spoke more to how a film could draw people in and get inside people’s heads, behaviors and thoughts.”
By the age of 12, Barrie began to make films with an old windup camera from the 1950s that an uncle lent him. Eventually buying his own camera at 14 by earning money from mowing lawns, Barrie’s dream was to make it to UCLA’s film school. Rejection pushed Barrie to find an alternate route to get to his dreams ““ and helped him find what he really wanted to do.
“I made a documentary film for my senior project and had the “˜aha’ moment and realized I could make environmental films,” Barrie said. “I didn’t know I was an environmentalist until I got into UCLA’s environmental science program, and I found a home there ““ all these issues that I had always been passionate about (but) never had an outlet for.”
By going to his local community access station and learning how to edit on film and Avid, Barrie learned the skills of filmmaking through practical experience.
“I think I am a better storyteller that I am filmmaker,” Barrie said. “I may not be skilled in the actual craft of being a filmmaker; I shoot more hours of footage in order to get those nuggets that I end up using in my films. What I learned was that when partnering up with people who do have that film knowledge, it’s really more effective to work collaboratively on a project ““ it turns out a better product in the end.”
Gaining inspiration from films like “Koyaanisqatsi,” which speaks of the destruction of man through the destruction of the environment, Barrie set out to make his ideal environmental film, “Kilowatt Ours.” He then went around the country to promote it, meeting with various groups. Eventually his film made its way from word of mouth to film festivals to scheduled television broadcasts this fall.
“It was my journey to find where our electricity comes from, what it does to our environment and what it means for our future, both for the planet and our people.” Barrie said. “I traveled around the country for about 10 years showing my documentaries. We need to mobilize people who are most passionate about the issue and attract people who are not believers to become passionate as well. I try to appeal to both groups. I can tell you I found just as much enthusiasm in Rotary clubs (and) inner-city classrooms as I found at the Sierra Club. I found if the message is done right, it can appeal to anyone.”
Although he may never have achieved his initial dream of being a film student, Barrie has no hard feelings.
“If I had gone to film school, my eyes would have never been opened to the environmental issues that have become my calling, but I had to have that decision made by the people who rejected me,” Barrie said. “Listen to your heart. The pain of rejection is never easy to take. I may have thicker skin, but I still got rejected all over the place. The pain of rejection never goes away. If you have a dream, find any way to get to it.”