We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Barrak Sitty. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Barrak below.
Hi Barrak, 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?
I started out in my young teens. My oldest brother, who’s 9 years older, was preparing a slideshow for my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. Despite our brotherly bickering and fighting, he asked if I wanted to learn. I helped him edit the video when I was 14. A few years later, the summer before my senior year of high school, he was diagnosed with cancer. Soft tissue sarcoma.
The hospital is where we became closer than ever. Our age gap felt like a barrier before. But now, we started talking about everything. Finance, career, relationship. Everything except how he’s handling cancer. We knew. So we talked about every thing else that is going on in our lives.
I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I took a break from college, interned with Clive Barker at Seraphim Films. Felt like I could take on the world but with no knowledge of what that meant. On the other hand, My brother, always seemed to know what he wanted. He went after it and when he realized it wasn’t for him he went after other passions. He wanted to be president…till he went to Brandeis University and then interned in DC. He decided against the political work life, but finished his masters and then followed his next passion; art. He not only possessed a natural gift for writing and drawing, he had an eye for talent. He landed a job at Paradigm where he quickly rose up the ranks and became an agent for writers. He told me to pursue my passion. He told me how much I loved joining him when he did puzzles, how I loved editing my parents slideshow. He told me that editing is just a giant puzzle you get to solve every day. He convinced me to apply to film school, to get a proper education to find out what I really want, and then work hard.
I listened. I wrote my college essays in the hospital room with him. I got in to UCLA Film School because of him. He was at UCLA medical center receiving treatment and I’d skip events to visit him. Come at all our hours of the day, often times he was too tired to chat. But regardless, he still convinced me to pursue my journey to follow my dream. I graduated, he helped get me internships to work my way up the daunting ladder of the film world. I worked in features (horror), documentaries (PBS), I got a job in sports (FOX Sports) and that’s where his support stepped. Shortly after I landed a dream job of editing for the biggest sporting events in the world, one morning I got the call I was dreading. The call that deep down I knew I might get, but one I never prepared for. One I never accepted as a reality for my world. My brother, Rani Moshe Sitty, passed away after an 8 year battle with soft tissue sarcoma on March 13, 2013.
My biggest support, my hero, the person I looked up to the most in life is no longer by my side. I find purpose by knowing how proud he’d be of what I’ve accomplished and how much more I want to do in editing. I’ve edited for multiple Super Bowls, World Cups, World Series, I just produced and edited a horror feature, edited TV docuseries, and was nominated for 3 sports Emmy’s for editing in 2022. All of my accomplishments and all of my future accomplishments won’t be known by him. But I know what I’ve done would make him proud and hope to continue living on the legacy of what he has passed down to me.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m a video editor who has a strong passion in helping others achieve their vision in stories. Sports has been my home, where I’ve been able to promote athletes causes and stories to raise awareness of what they’re passionate about. To me, editing isn’t just about being creative. Every one has a story that they want to tell, whether it’s fiction or not. I enjoy being able to help other’s figure out what the best way to tell their message.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I knew I wanted to be a video editing before attending UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, & Television. Despite that, the very first day of class was a symposium with all 32 incoming student. Our professor, William (Bill) McDonald, told that we all want to be creative and tell stories. But most importantly to be able to do that, we need to also make a living. That we need to find our marketable skill to make a living that will enable us to pursue our other passions. It’s possible to do both and we had our next couple years to figure out how to do that there.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
Collaboration is what I love most about editing. There’s misconception that editors live in isolation in a dark room. Well, okay, yes we do live that way, but it isn’t in isolation. The edit room is where we get to know our directors, producers, to their core. This knowledge helps me understand their vision. In turn, by knowing me, we have this mutual understanding and trust that we both want what is best for the film. Every one has disagreements for what we think is best. Being able to acknowledge and understand each others disagreements helps put the best product out there. That’s the kind of people I love working with.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://barraksitty.com
- Instagram: @barraksitty
