POUNDING THE PAVEMENT: THE REOPENING
CASSIDY ARKIN
TELLING HER OWN STORY
“The weather, the pandemic—they make me reexamine things about life,” says New York-based producer Cassidy Arkin. For the last 20 years, Arkin worked on TV news and magazine programs and documentaries. She has also been a field and story producer on social-impact projects and music videos. She was formerly with Paramount Network and worked for MTV, NBC, BET and ABC. “I am a woman of color,” Arkin says. “I started with producing music culture entertainment at the age of 14 for a teen magazine and TV show that received an
Cassidy Arkin is telling her own story in the docuseries Little Brown Girl.
104
PRODUCED BY
Emmy nomination, but my first priority was my community that I want to support.” Starting on her producing journey, she recalls being told: “You don’t have the background” ... “You don’t have the money” ... and more directly, “You can’t do it.” “But I knew that I could do it because I work hard and I know storytelling,” Arkin reveals. After telling other people’s stories, Arkin is now making the jump in collaboration with her mom for telling her own story through a docuseries called Little Brown Girl. She is currently in partnership with Stick Figure Entertainment on the development and production of the series. It’s about her being born and raised in Synanon, a social experiment in Marin County, California, which has since disbanded.
Arkin finds software tools such as Frame.io a godsend. The platform facilitates video collaboration and allows her team to review clips, chat and exchange notes. She uses a five-person crew and wants to work with people who’ve had “an amazing life and who are established in their craft.” When hiring, she also looks for something deeper—passion, vision, loyalty. “If someone is willing to learn, I am willing to teach,” she explains. “I always say yes to someone who says, ‘Please keep me in mind.’” She feels blessed to be a creative. “Some people like salary, while others live and die to tell stories. To me, payment is seeing your vision, your dream, come to life while collaborating with a team.”