Name: Céline Cousteau
Age: 40
Job Title and Description: Socio-environmental Documentarian—I capture and share stories of humanity’s connection to the natural world to inspire global consciousness and action.
College/Major: Skidmore College/ International Training, MA International and Intercultural Management
Website: www.celinecousteau.com and www.causecentric.org
Twitter Handle: @celinecousteau
What does your current job entail? Is there such a thing as a typical day?
Céline Cousteau: It’s tough to narrow my work down to one job because I have several roles and a few projects for each. Generally, I am a socio-environmental documentarian. I create independent productions under my own name and [have] created a non-profit, CauseCentric Productions, to focus on shorts stories about grassroots efforts. CCP uses storytelling to garner additional attention and support for these organizations.
I have partnered with and am spokesperson for the conservation efforts of two companies: La Prairie and Contiki Holidays. With La Prairie, we have expanded on a collection based on sustainably harvested marine ingredients and have created an award for marine protection. Contiki Holidays and I are working together on their marine focused conservation efforts through the TreadRight Foundation. We want to inspire the Contiki staff, travelers and [general] public to get more involved in the efforts of the organization. We have created two field projects whereby participants can join me in the field to witness and get involved in the conservation work Contiki is supporting.
I am also a public speaker and contribute to various forums and publications. It’s tough to say what a typical day looks like. Sometimes I spend hours I front of the computer; sometimes I am in remote places such as Patagonia, where I’m filming a story on an incredible area and the conservation efforts underway in the protected Melimoyu bay.
What is the best part of your job?
CC: Being in the field is incredibly rewarding—it is the result of a lot of networking, researching, communicating, fundraising and planning. This is where I get to reap the rewards of all that time spent in front of the computer and in meetings for endless hours. The second incredible part of my job is seeing those stories come together through the editing process and sharing them with an audience. This brings the expeditions and experiences back to life and makes the stories relevant because someone is seeing them and will hopefully be inspired by them.
What are some of the most effective ways to translate your message/findings to a large, diverse audience?
CC: I truly believe that if you want to connect an audience to a story, no matter how far away it happens, you need to make it relevant. That point of relevancy for me is people. An environmental story can always be told through the people who are either suffering from the damage to their natural world or trying to find solutions to protect or restore ecosystems and species. If I can connect people back to the natural world, I am doing what I set out to do. But it’s up to an audience to go beyond that inspiration and take action.
What is one thing you wish you knew about your industry when you first started out that you know now?
CC: I wish I had the time to keep up with all the new ways and places to bring the content to my audience, giving them an effortless way to see the films. So if there was one thing I would wish to have known before I started making my own films, it would be to better understand how our distribution paradigm would advance, shift and evolve so I could bring these stories to a wider audience.
You’ve been to so many amazing places! Which ones influenced your career the most?
CC: The Amazon has been the one place my mind and efforts seem to constantly travel back to. When I was nine years-old, I was there for the first time to accompany my family for two weeks. Now, 30+ years later, my first full length independent documentary and engagement campaign will be focused on a story in the Brazilian Amazon, where I spent some time on another film in 2006. Two years ago, I was asked by an indigenous spokesperson in Brazil to come back and help tell another story.
How did you grandfather’s (a.k.a. Jacques Cousteau) career influence your life of adventure?
CC: I was surrounded by people who worked on expeditions—my grandfather, grandmother, mother and father were all part of this. What I saw growing up was that adventure and exploration is a natural part of our lives. But as the world of exploration progressed and we understood more what was happening in our world, our goals became more focused on understanding and becoming advocates to protect the people, places and species we were seeing.
What words of wisdom do you find most valuable?
CC: “Never try to eat the elephant whole.”
I have a tendency of taking on a lot of projects and wanting to do too much at once. I remind myself that in order to move forward, sometimes taking small steps and crossing off the to do list one item at a time is actually much more efficient.
What is one mistake you made along the way and what did you learn from it?
CC: There was a time in my life when I settled into something easy because it offered me an opportunity to think less. Though this had terrific advantages, it only delayed what I was truly meant to do. But I would not be here had it not been for that time either—we never know what would happen if we didn’t have those moments in our lives.
What advice would you give to a 20-something with similar aspirations?
CC: It does not matter what profession one aspires to have, the only way to get to the end of a marathon is by working hard and taking the necessary steps to get there. If you skip the steps, you will never know if you could have done it on your own, which is so satisfying. I do not shy away from the dirty work nor is any task too menial if it helps move the bigger goal forward.