alumni at large Coming to Grips | Lisa Andracke ’05 Lisa Andracke ’05 was going to be a doctor— There are no “typical” days at her job, but some until her career plans were suddenly interrupted include pre-production work, researching and by a video camera foisted upon her by Professor tracking down people who may be interviewed. Phyllis Mannocchi. It was her senior year, the class Others are production days, which Andracke was American Dreams: the Documentary Film describes as, “basically trying to prepare for any Perspective and Andracke officially caught the bug. possible thing that could go wrong during the “My group did a documentary on Tom Dostie [a shoot.” Parking permits, food, and water need to 20-year-old Maine soldier who was killed in Iraq in be arranged. And then there’s always the “wild 2004], and it was such an incredible thing to work card,” the neighbor’s kid who might start making on,” she said. “It’s a huge issue, and there were all noise and riding around on his tricycle just as the sorts of viewpoints flying around, from Democratic cameras begin rolling. Then there’s post-production, to Republican. We struggled to make it apolitical wherein stock footage is researched and all of the and just tell the story. And I thought, ‘That’s it. film is carefully catalogued for the producers. I’m not going to be the doctor I never had the Despite the baseball topic of the Robinson science grades for, documentary, anyway.’ So when I which aired in July, left Colby, I started Andracke admits working as a grip she’s no sports nut. at HBO Sports.” “I didn’t know a To be fair, thing about it before Andracke came I started,” she said. by her newfound “But ultimately, it’s professional not just baseball— it’s about Jackie passion honestly. Robinson breaking She grew up in the race barrier. New York, where It’s not all about her father was a the ninth inning cinematographer of the third game, and her mother although that’s pretty was a television interesting in itself. producer. It’s about our history Andracke figured as a country and as she’d rebel and be a people and what different—hence the Dodgers did for the medical-school Brooklyn.” plans—but the Andracke always seed was already Lisa Andracke ’05 found her professional passion in film. has her eye on the germinating. “My father would come home from working next step. From the Robinson project she moved to in Africa or the Philippines, and he would tell me Florentine Films where she is working on a film by stories,” she said. “They were fascinating.” the renowned filmmaker Ken Burns. “I wouldn’t be Only two years after she graduated, Andracke ready to do it now, but one day I’d love to produce moved up to the role of production assistant on my own film, maybe something that dealt with a an HBO documentary about the Brooklyn Dodgers. political issue,” she said. “And I definitely fantasize She worked with a team of eight—another about having my own production company.” production assistant, two associate producers, But for now, life is good for this Boerum Hill, two editors, and two producer/directors—and she Brooklyn, resident. loved every minute of it. “Someone thinks it’s okay to spend money on “For eight people to spend every day together letting me have fun,” she said, genuinely amazed. for a year, you get to know pretty much everything “I love it so much, it doesn’t feel like work.” about them,” she said. “My coworkers are not only —Mackenzie Dawson ’99 incredibly smart, but they’re also kind. Basically, we’re all a bunch of dorks who love what we do. Editor’s note: See profile of Professor Phyllis And we all want to make sure that this film is the Mannocchi and the American Dreams class, p 32. best, and most interesting, that it can possibly be.”
72 COLBY / FALL 2007
prefers Marc Jacobs bags! ✹ Parker Thompson has ceased slinging sushi and is now an aspiring fi lmmaker’s muse. ✹ Michael Clifford recently bought a Josh McConnell original painting. At cost. Josh is painting and distributing verbal headlocks. —Kate Weiler
05
Jackie Dao is engaged to Tom Shu USN and was hired by the European Aeronautic Defense Space Company to assist the VP and director of the department. ✹ Chris Van Wagenen proposed to Erin Rockney in December. Erin will attend medical school at Loyola University following a June wedding on the North Shore and a honeymoon to the Turks and Caicos Islands. The wedding party will include John Cole, Tom Ireland, and Nicole Conrad. ✹ Ellen Weaver was accepted into the ETEP program at the University of Southern Maine, which will certify her as a K–8 teacher. ✹ Cara Pollard started Duke’s physician assistant program in August, working toward her master’s. ✹ Shannon Emerson ran the Boston Marathon in April for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, raising nearly $10,000 in honor of Shareen Abbasy. ✹ Julie Morrison fi nished her fi rst year at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where she is getting her doctorate in physical therapy and is the president of her class. Julie is still dating Sean Baron, who was accepted to Princeton for his Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience. ✹ Mallory Young left New Hampton School and will be working at UMass Boston as the assistant coach for the women’s hockey team. ✹ Mary Medlin plans to start a two-year MFA program in creative writing at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C., next January. ✹ Noah Smith fi nished his master’s in computer science at Tufts and plans to launch a start-up company building online communities of interest, starting with CommonK itchen.com. He lives with Rachel Beaupre, who works at Vose Galleries on Newbury Street in Boston. ✹ Megan Loosigian teaches Spanish at Governor’s Academy in Byfield, Mass. She took a group of students to Marbella, Spain, for 10 days this summer and will take a Spanish Language School program toward her master’s in Spanish. ✹ Jessica Beetz is enter-