PLYMOUTH -- Beth Murphy headed for Afghanistan the day after Christmas to shoot a documentary film on relief workers under complex emergency circumstances. The trip, made to the consternation of her loved ones, largely typifies the 32-year-old filmmaker's approach to her career. "I do view it as taking calculated risks," said Murphy before her trip. But, she added, "I cannot imagine being anywhere or anywhere else right now."
That's how she felt in 1998 when the future filmmaker left her comfortable job as a local television news reporter to start her own documentary-production company and indulge a passion for international affairs. "I was totally independent, which was definitely a risk," she recalled. Her risk-taking appears to be paying off.
During the past year, Passport Productions Inc. generated more than $240,000 in revenue for Murphy, who runs the company from her home in Plymouth with the help of one full-time employee, one part-time worker and two interns.
In addition to the forthcoming documentary on international relief workers, Murphy is currently working on a series about environmental justice, is looking for a buyer for a documentary about grassroots activism in the United States, and is wrapping up filming on "Never Too Young: Young Survivors Unite Against Breast Cancer," an hourlong look at young women who are diagnosed with breast cancer.
Murphy received nearly $300,000 for the film, most from the pharmaceutical unit of Switzerland-based Roche Group.Since founding the company, her passport has taken Murphy to lands as far as Sudan and Kosovo, among other locales, and she has been nominated for a pair of Emmy awards.
Her husband, Dennis, who owns a real estate company, often joins Murphy as her associate producer on trips, and Murphy says she is happiest when she is traveling -- sometimes as much as 10 months out of the year. That's not surprising when one considers how she came to news reporting in the first place.
The Gales Ferry, Conn.-native was a sophomore at the University of Connecticut in 1988 when a professor, who was the news director and morning anchor for a radio station in Narragansett, R.I., invited the students to the studio for a behind-the-scenes look. Murphy was up the next morning at 3 a.m. to log the two-hour-plus drive to the station, and soon was lending a hand and collecting news from wire reports. Less a month later, she was still waking at 3 a.m. for the long drive, only she was now broadcasting all of the morning news.
From there, Murphy took a series of radio jobs, including a stint broadcasting news on Connecticut oldies station Big D 103, but left less than a year later to complete her degree in history, which she received in 1992.
During her time in the news business, Murphy developed a keen interest in international affairs, and shortly after graduating from UConn, she started a master's program in international relations and communications at Boston University, which she finished in 1999. But despite her pedigree in foreign affairs, Murphy's next move was decidedly local, working as a television news reporter, covering local events on the eastern shore of Maryland.
While there, Murphy got her first taste of documentary filmmaking when she was sent to Bosnia to film a segment on local troops. She received an Associated Press award for the documentary, as well as an inkling that she had found her calling. Her news director at CBS affiliate WBOC television, Marilyn Buerkle, remembered Murphy as a "human dynamo," who returned from Bosnia and put together a five-part series and half-hour special about the trip almost without any rest. "I can say, without any qualification, that she had perhaps the highest energy level of anyone who ever came (through) our newsroom," Buerkle said.
About a year later, Murphy moved to a local television station in New Jersey, and in 1997 got a chance to film another documentary, this time, about a Russian ethnic group whose largest population outside of their native country resided in New Jersey. She loved the experience, and came to the realization that local news just wasn't going to cut it for her, Murphy recalled. "I wanted to find a way to spend more time on the kinds of stories I was interested in covering."
The following year, Murphy became an independent documentary film producer and, soon after, incorporated her company as Passport Productions. Drawing on industry contacts, Murphy found a gig producing documentaries that focused on the work of nonprofits. The films would cost about $100,000 each, all of which Murphy raised as donations from corporations and individuals. Soon, topics such as a look at slavery in Sudan and the work of relief workers in war-torn Kosovo reflected her international interests. Murphy's documentaries, 11 in total, have since run on more than 150 PBS stations, including the Kosovo film, "Heroes of Hope: Crisis in Kosovo," which was narrated by actor Sam Waterson and nominated for a regional Emmy award. Murphy believes she has found her calling in creating socially conscious documentaries, and expects that her innate energy, not to mention her passport, will enable her to continue making a difference.
"I believe so strongly in making your own opportunities," she said. "Ultimately, that's what got me up at 3 a.m. in the morning (for her radio gig in Rhode Island.) This is similar to that, just on a different scale."
Copyright 2002 American City Business Journals Inc.
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