By Joshua Barranco

May 1, 2019

GCC Alumni Rachel Doktor is an adjunct professor who teaches video production classes at Genesee Community College.

She just recently made the switch from grad student to adjunct professor. “Being a student for almost six years straight, you kind of get into that droning, assignment after assignment in collaborations with other people,” she said “But now that I’m actually teaching, it’s really not that different because throughout college I was teaching everyone around me, especially undergrads in grad school. As a grad student you’re constantly helping undergrads and aiding them out in the editing room. So really it was not that much of a leap going from to grad student instructing other students going to adjunct. It was a smooth transition.”

When it comes to the art of videography Doktor is the one to go to. Even outside of GCC, she is found making videos as a camera operator. “During the last two semesters of grad school, I was doing a few outside collaborations, a few of them with students and a few weren’t,” she said. “It was mostly short story horror. There were some long take videos, but it was mostly short term projects I was camera operator on, anything that looked interesting.”

When Doktor was young she would create films for fun with her family. “So basically for any filmmakers beginning, they start off with some random chaotic video of their friends or their family, so the very first thing I made as an amateur or professional would be the Doktor Family Movie, and it was this horrendous long thing in two parts, and we had several scenes which were parodies of Alice In The Wonderland and a whole bunch of other stuff, but that’s the start of it,” Doktor said. “You just start making these random videos and they’re really not that good at all, but it definitely got me into the joy of finishing videos and feeling pride of like, ‘Hey I finished something, and I made something and even though it’s not the best, it’s still a thing.’ So, starting to make things is what really started it.”

Not only does Doktor love to create films, she also loves to create homes for rescued animals. Caring for animals comes naturally to Doktor, “As a kid if anything needed help like even if it was a baby bunny or a bird with a broken wing or leg or something I’d take them in,” she said. “And then it started getting to the point where I had my own little collection of animals such as chickens, so if anyone had a chicken that needed a home, I would say I can take them in because I already had a flock. It was a basically anything I already had I’d take in: rabbits, guinea pigs, parrots, finches, anything.”