Meet Elizabeth Unger

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elizabeth Unger. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elizabeth below.

Hi Elizabeth, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

To be honest, for a very long time I felt lost about my purpose. I vividly remember writing a long list of career options when I was in my 20s, desperately searching to find a job that would encapsulate all the things I wanted to do. Adventure, freedom, and making an impact were things that I deeply desired for myself. How to achieve those things and create a sustainable livelihood…I wasn’t sure. With a lot of careful consideration, I began to pursue a career in photojournalism and honed those skills during a graduate program at NYU. It was during those years that I received my first grant from National Geographic Society for a photojournalism project based in Japan and Brazil. I worked hard, gave it everything I had, and delivered some beautiful articles and photos to National Geographic, which they eventually published online. But during that process I realized that photojournalism was simply not the career I was meant to have. I just wasn’t passionate about it. After another long-winded bout of feeling lost, I remember watching a friend’s documentary at NYU’s annual student film festival. And things suddenly clicked together. Documentary film – which ironically enough never made it on that career list I made long ago – could be the thing I was looking for all this time. I promptly began conceptualizing my first film, dropped out of grad school, and the rest is history. That documentary, my feature debut, ended up world premiering at Tribeca Film Festival and was broadcast by National Geographic. It launched my career and today I’m a full-time documentary director and producer. Life works in mysterious ways, and it wasn’t easy to get to this place, but I can say wholeheartedly now that I know I’ve found my purpose.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

As a documentary filmmaker, I believe in the power of beauty. I believe in the power of truth. And, as someone who spent much of my higher education in biology labs and in the field, I believe in science. Film has the ability to truly affect people and move them in a way that an academic paper never could. Whether it’s providing awareness or promoting a call to action, there is immense power in film and its potential to change hearts and minds – both on an individual and community level. This has been a deep motivator for me, and something I continue to think about, as a filmmaker with a background in conservation.

I’m extremely vested in maximizing impact when it comes to the stories that I work on; most people don’t realize that simply making a film is not enough to make change on the level that many of us are hoping for. Creating a separate, but parallel, impact campaign is necessary to accompany the film’s mission. Many documentary filmmakers themselves are new to the world of impact campaigns, which require a sophisticated strategy and an experienced team to execute them successfully on both a political and educational level. I’ve spent the last eight years developing such campaigns for my projects, and I’m currently collaborating with academic partners, like the University of Oxford, to measure these campaigns’ efficacy. We want to know: How do you quantify changing a heart and a mind? What does real impact look like – and can it be measured on paper? These questions – and the framework our team is creating for other science communicators to follow in our footsteps – are critical to making impact in the world. During a time when science and environmentalism are under fire, leading to more and more divisiveness, impact storytelling is the key that will unite us through emotion and our shared empathy – some of the best qualities that make us human.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Big dreams. Aim for the stars and never look back.

Surround yourself with people who believe in you. There are talented people everywhere – gravitate to those who are excited to collaborate with you.

Keep going. There will be obstacles, set-backs, and complications waiting for you up ahead. Be persistent and you will be successful.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

When I feel overwhelmed, I tend to feel it in my body and mind. And when those times do happen, I go for a drive, go outdoors, stretch, listen to music – anything that can trick myself out of that paralyzing space. I find that when I come back to my problems a few hours later, or even the next day, I often feel a lot more refreshed and energized. For me, it’s important to listen to my body and not try to force things when it doesn’t feel aligned. My biggest advice is to remember to be kind to yourself – both your mental health and your quality of work will greatly benefit from it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @liz.w.unger

Image Credits

Edward Roqueta