About Us
FILMMAKER PRODUCES NATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FOR PBS
DAN KOLEN, CLASS OF 2007
Dan and classmate Justin Lansing ’07 wanted to create a film for their senior theses in April 2006 when they decided to team up and look at the issue of illegal immigration. A major immigrant rights rally was scheduled for May 1 in downtown Chicago. On the day of the rally they hopped on the Metra commuter train and went in search of a story among the 150,000 who turned out. There, they met the American wife of a deported immigrant. She agreed to be interviewed along with the former head of the Chicago INS and the director of the Illinois Minuteman Project. Dan and Justin also had the opportunity to interview the deported immigrant in Mexico. “Being near the cultural opportunities in Chicago is incredibly important,” says Dan, an Iowa native. “If you aren’t near those, you aren’t going to be able to find the stories.”
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Lake Forest College’s proximity to Chicago gives students opportunities to pursue their passions in college and beyond.
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Dan had arrived freshman year with an interest in filmmaking and regularly took advantage of the city throughout his four years at Lake Forest College. He made a documentary about the Muslim population after September 11, attended the city’s International Film Festival, and held internships with the film organization Facets Multi Media and award winning documentarian Steve James, who directed Hoop Dreams.
After graduating, he tapped into this experience and the connections he had made and landed as an associate producer on shows for the History Channel and the Weather Channel. Now, Dan works as a producer for a national PBS documentary about aging and retirement in the current financial crisis. He books and interviews experts and individuals around the country and determines how to visually show their stories.
“I came to the school with the express want to use the city, and I was able to fulfill it thanks to the institutional support and the school’s proximity to Chicago,” he says. “I wouldn’t have gotten that from any other school.”