It seemed like a career in journalism was the career path paved for Matthew Hashiguchi.
A 2007 graduate of Ohio State and former assistant photo editor for The Lantern, he left OSU with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. Shortly after, he began work for smaller newspapers such as The Lima News and The Courier of Findlay, Ohio. After interning for those publications, he was able to land the big internship — working for the multimedia section with The Washington Post.
“When I was working for newspapers, I was pretty comfortable,” said Hashiguchi, 25. “I had a pretty decent living.”
Then something changed in Hashiguchi. While studying for his master’s degree at Emerson College in Boston, he changed his career path and went into the world of independent filmmaking. He said he enjoys the artistic freedom of working in the film business as opposed to journalism.
“In filmmaking and movies, it offers your own voice,” Hashiguchi said. “When you’re doing journalism or broadcast journalism, you have to kind of stay middle of the road, and sometimes you’re not allowed an opinion.”
Although that side of filmmaking has been something Hashiguchi has enjoyed, he remains faithful to his journalistic roots and experiences working for newspapers.
“Filmmaking and journalism at their base are the same thing: story telling,” Hashiguchi said. “The short time that I spent as a newspaper journalist ensured that I know how to tell and approach a story with a certain degree of professionalism.”
Hashiguchi has now started working on his biggest film endeavor to date, “The Lower 9,” a documentary about the famous Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. In an area devastated by the effects of Hurricane Katrina, Hashiguchi set out to capture the spirit of the culturally enriched and diverse neighborhood.
“That’s what I’m working on non-stop right now,” he said. “I wake up in the morning and I’m doing it and I’m working on it until I go to sleep.”
One of Hashiguchi’s biggest goals with the film is to give back to the residents of the ward. He is actively reaching out to nonprofit organizations and citizens of the community. “One thing that is important, especially to the people in New Orleans of the Lower Ninth Ward, is that these films bring back something to the community,” Hashiguchi said.
Upon finishing the film, Hashiguchi said the next route is to take the film through the film festival circuit. After that, he said he would like to put the film on DVD and television.
Ryan Merrill, a former editor-in-chief at The Lantern with Hashiguchi, is also helping on the project. Merrill is creating the Web site layout and graphic design for the film.
“[Matt] really had a strong work ethic in college, and he was able to do a lot of cool stuff with the paper,” said Merrill, 26. “It will be interesting to see if he can apply the same of both skills to the ‘The Lower 9′ as he did to The Lantern.”
While Hashiguchi continues to work in film, he is content with continuing his independent ventures.
“I think that the independent way is the way for me to go,” Hashiguchi said. “There’s just so much freedom when you’re an independent filmmaker.”
Hashiguchi speculates that he will be done filming by August 2010 and have his final product complete by summer 2011
