Author

Kristen Chin

@kchinjournalist

Kristen Chin is a graduate journalism student at Boston University, documentary filmmaker, and writer. Having traveled to 25 countries and lived in two, she aspires to work on documentaries and docu-eries about travel, food, and lifestyle. Her work can be seen at www.kristenchinjournalist.com

How a documentary filmmaker captures "lived experience"

How a documentary filmmaker captures “lived experience”

By Kristen ChinA self-described “perennial schoolboy” at heart, Omar Mullick is both romantic daydreamer and pragmatic journalist. It’s in the first few moments speaking with him that I can tell…
January 20, 2023
Print beat reporting vs documentary film drama: Pros and cons

Print beat reporting vs documentary film drama: Pros and cons

As the aerospace beat reporter for the Seattle Times, Dominic Gates is one of the world’s most knowledgeable journalists about the business of commercial aviation, and especially about the Boeing…
October 27, 2022
A podcast focused on diversity practices what it preaches

A podcast focused on diversity practices what it preaches

When I asked Saadia Khan whether or not she identifies as a journalist, she said no. Her definition of a journalist: “someone with a degree in journalism or has worked…
July 1, 2022
A documentary film breaks rules and wins an Oscar

A documentary film breaks rules and wins an Oscar

EDITOR’S NOTE: All time codes in this post correspond to the YouTube version of “The Queen of Basketball.” It’s also available, with an introduction by filmmaker Ben Proudfoot, on The…
May 27, 2022
What happens when fandom backfires in a culture of censorship

What happens when fandom backfires in a culture of censorship

Each time I lived in China, for a stretch in 2008 and again in 2015, I felt alone and disconnected. I grew up in Boston, but am Chinese by blood.…
March 29, 2022
When feedback is a drag, and when it's path forward

When feedback is a drag, and when it’s path forward

For most of my life, feedback made me anxious.I was in third grade when my mom came home from a parent-teacher conference with this pronouncement. “Your teacher said your math…
March 11, 2022
Challenges of sourcing, safety and reporting for narrative in China

Challenges of sourcing, safety and reporting for narrative in China

By her own admission, New York Times reporter Sui-Lee Wee doesn’t often break news out of China; her beat coverage usually follows the reporting of multiple Chinese articles about the…
November 11, 2020
How limitations — COVID, budgets, access and more — can spark fresh ideas

How limitations — COVID, budgets, access and more — can spark fresh ideas

When the quarantine began in March, the lifestyles production unit at GBH Studio Six in Boston — which is responsible for a range of programming content, from cooking and travel…
September 17, 2020
Rejecting the simplified news narrative

Rejecting the simplified news narrative

While reading the news in 2017, filmmaker Erin Lee Carr first saw the “very wide, intense eyes” of Michelle Carter. She looked like a “deer in headlights,” Carr said. At the time, Carter was on trial in Massachussetts on charges of…
July 2, 2020