News
“Indiana Jane” swings onto campus
News Reporter
Award-winning filmmaker and executive producer for National Geographic Martha Conboy gave a lecture to the public Monday, April 21. The event, held in The Theater in the Dreyfus University Center, was entitled “Indiana Jane? No, Martha Conboy, a REAL National Geographic Channel Adventurer.”
With 25 years of experience in her field, Conboy discussed the business side of the film and television industry as well the craft. She showed several clips from series she has produced and is currently producing with National Geographic, such as Planet in Motion and Strange Days on Planet Earth with Ed Norton.
“If nothing else, we are in the business of entertainment,” said Conboy. “If we don’t entertain, then we’ve failed.”
She also said the “biggest thing that has changed right now is the paradigm of the business…it’s not so much the information now, it’s who’s filtering it.”
Conboy explained that National Geographic has two main sectors. One is the for- profit National Geographic Channel and is affiliated with FOX. In this sector, Conboy is currently producing a show called “Geo-sessions, which features global music artists.
The other is the non-profit Mission Programming Division, which strives to “get you to care about the planet, and to be more knowledgeable about it.” She added that any new type of content is welcome, and that they recently aired footage “of a chimp making a shish kabob of a tree animal.”
The Mission Division, under which Conboy is currently producing a weekly series for PBS called “Wild Chronicles,” additionally shows films from non-profit companies like Unicef.
She said it is “bound and determined to find stories and show them.”
“If it’s someone doing the right thing, we’ll show it…we take a lot of films done by students and anyone who gives a damn,” said Conboy.
Also, with the public’s renewed interests in natural history and the earth and the problems it faces, she said National Geographic tries to “celebrate what we have, and celebrate the natural world.” When dealing with topics like global warming, she added, “You have to address these things in a way that’s not so apocalyptic. Otherwise it’s too incomprehensible, too unmanageable, and people can’t get their minds around it.”
Conboy, though she started as an editor, has worked mainly as an independent producer. Her work and talent has gotten her an Academy Award Nomination for Best Documentary Short Subject, a Dupont Columbia Journalism Award and several Emmys.
Her visit to the UW-SP campus also included meeting and speaking with four communication classes on campus, as well as with the student media organizations.
“I enjoyed learning the details of how the organization works.” said Communication major Jeff Mahoney. “[Her presentations] were very well organized and very well thought out.”
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