HEATHER ☁︎⋅ོ

Documentarian, Visual Storyteller, Oral Historian, and Audiovisual Archivist

BACKGROUND


I have nearly two decades of video production, audio engineering, photography, post-production, and web design experience. Detail oriented with strong project-management, organizational, communication, and listening skills. My areas of expertise include Adobe Creative Suite, Final Cut Studio, Wordpress, Wix, Squarespace, Gsuite, MacOS, media management, workflow design, digital archiving, oral history, and storytelling.

I descend from the indigenous, indigenized, and deeply rooted peoples of Wabanakik ("Dawnland”), the homeland of the Wabanaki, People of the Dawn, and give thanks for opportunities to foster, care for, and tend to marginalized voices, histories, and stories. With both an ancestral and professional background in oral history and storytelling, I use the practice of space holding and deep listening to kindle collective liberation. My hope is within the practice of rooted remembering, mutual respect will increase and suffering will diminish for all. My work has grown out of centering integrity and harm reduction, with a wish to inspire others to explore, reweave, and deepen connection with the more than human world and to each other. I continually take part in conversations and training based within social justice, decolonization / re-indigenizing, anti-racism, harm reduction, respectful land stewardship, indigenous rights, collective liberation, reciprocity, disability justice, and neurodiversity. I am certified in oral history through Baylor University, with ongoing OHMA / Columbia Oral History training, such as "Queering Oral History Methods: Sense Memories and Research Creation,” “The NYC Trans Oral History Project and Rethinking Oral History Methodology,” “Land Back! The Importance of Oral History in First Nation Land Claims Cases,” and “Oral History: A Working Praxis of Critical Care and Relationship-Building.”

Over the span of my career I have managed four major audiovisual archives. From 2004-2008 I edited, digitized, and organized digital programming content for North Andover Community Access. From 2011-2015 I served as an editor, media manager, database technician, archivist, and general go-to post-production manager for Compass Light Productions. We worked out of a 3 Suite, RAID based, DROBO backed system, connected to an internal server, all of which I helped create, digitize, manage and maintain. I also digitized and archived the entirety of their 20+ year collection of analogue footage and content. From 2015-2023 I served as the video editor and oversaw the digitization of all filmed Camden Conferences, managing the entirety of the conference’s extensive history of digital media and video archive, making the conference free and available to the public. I now work with the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project as their oral history archive manager, providing on-site technical support for the ongoing processing of the Wexler Oral History Project’s rapidly expanding digital collection of in-depth oral history interviews about Yiddish language and culture and managing on-site and off-site storage and back-ups of the large and expanding digital video archive to ensure long-term preservation and access.

Freelance 2015-Present

Documentarian, Digital Storyteller, Oral Historian, and Audiovisual Archivist

 

Compass Light Productions (Camden, ME) 2011-2015  

Editor, Audio Engineer, Media Management & Database Technician

  • Compass Light produces non-fiction narrative content revealing the wonder of the natural world. Venues include broadcast, theatrical, internet and narrowcast. On a daily basis I served as an editor, media manager, database technician, writer, archivist, and general go-to post-production manager. We worked out of a 3 Suite, RAID based, DROBO backed system, connected to an internal server, all of which I helped manage and maintain.

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Lie-Nielsen Toolworks (Warren, ME) 2011-2012 

In-House Production Technician

  • Video and web content featuring Lie-Nielsen’s hand tools. Services included on-set audio, camera-op, video editing, audio engineering, graphic design, web assets, photo retouching and media management.

 

Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine (Los Angeles, CA) 2009-2010 

In-House Production Technician

  • Provided on-set audio and camera-op, video editing, audio engineering, graphic design, web assets, and photo retouching.  

  • Managed website, including the creation of text and graphical content.  

  • Created product datasheets, marketing material such as press releases, product manuals, and various sales collateral.

 

North Andover Community Access (North Andover, MA) 2004-2008 

Studio Production Technician

  • Operated video cameras, switchers, and audio boards for conferences, in-studio productions and training sessions.

  • Routed audio and video signals for television and web casts.

  • Created products and copies of the program catalogue. 

  • Conceptualized, designed, prepared and produced creative and original copy for promotional literature under very limited supervision.          

  • Organized filing systems for all archived marketing material and computer files.

 

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Science in Television-Radio, Double Concentration in Video Production and Audio Engineering, Minor in Alternative & Holistic Medicine, Cum Laude, Roy H. Park School of Communications, Ithaca College