Member Profile: Jennie Hendrickson Written by Vanessa Vartabedian

Jennie Hendrickson, named after Jennifer Jones, has always been a “film buff”. She has also been a flutist (which she prefers to flautist) who has traveled though Germany and France with an orchestra, a Research Assistant with The Walt Disney Archives, at the Walt Disney Studio in Burbank, CA, and a DJ for radio stations at MIT and WGBH. Considering all the references she makes to her favorite films in our interview, which are far too many to mention ( i.e. too difficult for me to spell), the fact that she was named after a famous actress, and likening her experience in Germany to being in a Marx Brothers’ movie, it is no surprise at all that Jennie has ended-up a movie-maker herself.

She attributes her attraction to SCAT to her previous work as a DJ at WMBR, where a fellow DJ had shown her a video she produced about another DJ that really impressed her. And walking by one day, Jennie decided to sign-up for an orientation and she joined. That was about two years ago. Six years into her residency as a Somervillian.

In additional to her independent video projects since then, Jennie has been an asset as camera-woman on several SCAT studio programs including CafÈ SCAT, mayoral debates and teen issues programming. “Working as part of a crew on a set is more like playing in an orchestra than Djing. DJing is a solo act. In a TV crew you are working together for the common good. They say, ‘you’re only as good as your weakest link.’ That’s true as a musician in a band, or as a member of a TV crew. I like the camaraderie, it’s more social than DJing. I enjoy that.”

Currently, Jennie is editing her documentary short on Stereo Jack’s, about a local record shop that’s been around for over twenty years. “I was my own crew, I did everything. The shop was so small that I had to move out of the way when someone wanted to make a purchase or enter or leave the shop. I pretty much knew what points I wanted to put across, but I knew it couldn’t be very controlled because I had to shoot and see what situations worked and which didn’t. Jack is a DJ and I admire him. I think his personal style of doing business won’t be around much longer so I want to document it. It’s a portrait of the store.” Next, she’d like to expand her experience by filming narrative shorts where she would direct actors and a crew.

She is currently studying part-time at Simmons College in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (or “library school” as she calls it), where she plans to focus on becoming a film archivist, a noble profession. But from where I stand, I don’t see Jennie hiding out in dark basements straining her eyes to read titles of other people’s work or cramming film reels into small spaces on overcrowded shelves (isn’t that how they do it these days?). But rather, on location or in the studio sharing her enthusiasm and vision with the lucky people who get to work with her on her next project. Thanks for contributing your spirit to SCAT’s Jennie! We’re lucky to have you.

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