The Bigger Picture:

It was a teacher at Columbus School for Girls who introduced Julie Janata ’75 to the world of film.

Janata, who attended CSG from Form V through XII, had always loved reading, specifically character development. When she reached the end of her senior year, her former Form VIII teacher, Jane Chamberlain, introduced her to an opportunity with local public access cable television.

The two attended a training together, and Chamberlain volunteered Janata to run the large studio camera for a show about the Ohio State Fair that was broadcast live twice a day during the summer.

“It was a major turning point, and I was just 17 years old,” Janata said. “I was absolutely mesmerized by it.”

Janata worked that show, Cable at the Fair, that summer and the next. The experience sparked within her a love for the industry that would never leave. Now a two-time Emmy Award winner, Janata has worked as an editor, story consultant, producer, and director on a variety of major motion pictures as well as independent films and documentaries.

“I am endlessly fascinated with making films and all the possible experiences there are in the world. Paths people take. Mistakes they make. Obstacles they overcome,” she said.

Always interested in people’s stories, Janata originally wanted to be a psychologist. After graduating from CSG, she attended the Residential College at the University of Michigan, where she double majored in Psychology and Film & Television. Though she had initially envisioned film as a creative hobby, a summer internship with ABC Channel 6 in her early 20s made her realize she needed to pursue film as a career.

Janata took a year off college, during which she was hired by Channel 6 to write, produce, direct, and edit promotional spots for the station. That experience spurred her to attend the American Film Institute, after earning her undergraduate degree. She was selected as the only female Cinematography Fellow that year, and also created her own editing program.

Janata quickly became a force within the film industry, working her way up to major motion pictures as an assistant editor. She traveled the world working on location in Europe and Africa, moving from project to project. By the late 1990s, Janata began using what she learned as an assistant editor to move up to editing and then producing.

She also began being asked to serve as a story consultant for others’ films. In the most recent example, she served as a producer and editor for Fuego, a film that tells the story of an indigenous mother in Guatemala who struggles to keep her family together in the face of the migration crisis. The film is due out later this year.

Janata credits CSG with fostering within her the perseverance necessary to find success in her career. But her time at CSG also gave Janata an appreciation for the power of creating a space for women that she has taken with her into the film industry.

“There were and still are lots of barriers,” she said. As a career veteran, she has championed inclusion for decades, first as President of Alliance of Women Directors, then Co-Chairing the Producers Guild’s Power of Diversity

Master Workshop. She remains committed to creating pathways for women and all underserved voices who come after her.