Keene State College has recently welcomed two new members to the film department, with Laina Barakat and Jeff Kolter both joining the school’s faculty this semester.
Despite the fact that Barakat and Kolter said they do not have any prior experience teaching film, they both bring experience with working in the film industry to their new roles at KSC.
Barakat said she has worked as a filmmaker for around 20 years. After getting her start as an intern and producer at film production companies Either/Or Films and Kingston Road Pictures, Barakat started her own company called Wayward Ark Productions nearly a decade ago. Now, Barakat said she writes, directs and produces mostly narrative feature films.
Barakat said she has always loved the film program at KSC, but without a degree in film or education, she had never thought about teaching film students. That changed when KSC Film Department Chair Jo Dery approached her with the opportunity to teach because of her experience level with making films.
“What’s fun about it is I can offer something different than the other professors. I may not be as qualified on a technical level and I may not be as excellent of a teacher just as far as teaching goes … but I offer a lot of real-world experience and a lot of current connections because I’m still making films while I’m here,” Barakat said. “I’ve been able to bring a lot of my students on set with me, so they get something different when it comes to my classroom.”
Barakat said continuing her work as an active filmmaker while simultaneously teaching film is going to be one of the biggest challenges with her new position.
“Next semester, I’m running into a challenge where I don’t know if I can commit to teaching or not because I have a feature that I’m attached to and if it gets greenlit, I’m going to be in Ireland for months. But you never know, because in the independent film world, you never know if these things are going to get greenlit. It could be another year,” Barakat explained. “Balancing a curriculum that is constant [and] is concrete, with a creative schedule that is very up in the air at all times, it’s a little bit hard to juggle both of those things.”
Barakat said her favorite part about teaching film so far has been connecting with the students.
“I love their hunger, their eagerness, their unjadedness, all of that is really exciting. The film industry is a really difficult place right now. Nobody is buying anything, it’s very hard to make anything right now, so there’s a lot of discouraged people and being able to work with young fresh voices is fun,” Barakat said. “I always think about where these students are going to be in 20 years and they could be hiring me someday, so I love cultivating them and giving them the support that they need so they can get in those positions.”
Similarly to Barakat, new film faculty and KSC alum Kolter brings years of filmmaking experience to his first-ever teaching role.
After graduating from KSC’s film department in 2008, Kolter said he has worked as a freelance filmmaker with a focus on editing. Kolter said he has edited many music videos, commercials and short films, including three of Barakat’s films.
Kolter said his decision to return to Keene to teach was inspired by how much he loved the film program when he was a student.
“The cultivation of community in the film department really set me up to work collectively with folks because that’s how film works, you work with lots of people,” Kolter said. “There was a lot of freedom and focus on creative expression in the film program back then, and as much as I can tell it is the same today.”
Kolter said his favorite part of teaching film has been seeing what his students create.
“Getting to see the projects and see what they do and how they think and what they’re into and seeing them apply what they’ve learned was really, really fun, and I’m excited to keep getting to see their edits,” Kolter said. “It’s reflecting back to me. I love editing. I know a bunch about it. I’ve been doing it forever at this point. But now I’m relearning it in a way and I’m focusing on it more than I ever have in a whole different way which I am very grateful for.”
Overall, Kolter said he was just happy to be able to come back to Keene State.
“There’s still a couple of professors that I had 20 years ago that are still here,” Kolter said. “I’m happy to come back to the school I graduated from. I’ve gone away and moved back to town a few times at this point and it’s exciting to be a part of the film department from this angle now.”
Justin Dearborn can be reached at
