Sarah Fretwell
Multimedia Storyteller
“A lot of times when describing my work, I say I go into a situation and the question I’m asking in my head is: What if the new bottom line was love? Where can we find the intersection of people, planet and profit where everyone is thriving?”
Sarah’s career came from taking big risks. After hearing a heartbreaking news story in the communities living amidst natural resource conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sarah stopped everything and relocated there for 50 days. During that time she visited remote rebel-held areas to learn first hand from girls and women what was really happening as they tried to survive amid the highest rates of sexual violence in the world. Her final creation shared her unique talents and launched her career as a multimedia storyteller.
Sarah has worked for a number of foundations and nonprofits, documenting a wide range of issues and initiatives. From renewable energy in Hawaii with USAID, to preserving the Ogasawara islands with Tara Expeditions Foundation, to sneaking into Eritrean Refugees she found on Google maps, Sarah’s award-winning work has shared the eye-opening and remarkable stories of people around the world. Her career has taken her to some of the world’s most remote and pristine locations as well as areas ravaged by conflict and exploitation. Keep reading to learn more about the projects she’s worked on, the challenges and joys of her career, and how she spends her time outside of work.
Q: What’s keeping you busy?
A: “I’m a multimedia storyteller. A majority of what I do now is video but there’s almost always some aspect of photography involved. On bigger jobs, I usually have a crew and I’m working as the director. When it’s for smaller foundations and nonprofits I’m a one-woman band. I learn about everything from clean energy to food distribution in refugee camps to the impact of climate change on coral reefs. It is always diverse subject matter with a steep learning curve. What I love about it is I get to step into other worlds and get to know a situation intimately. I find people and life fascinating. Often, I get to explore the world by asking people about the most intense experiences of their lives within a few minutes of meeting them.”
Q: How did you get to where you are today?
A: “What really landed me here was taking a big calculated risk. I saw this news story about a village in the Democratic Republic of Congo where 200 women and 5 small girls had been held captive by rebels and raped over the course of a few weeks. There was a UN base several miles down the road but they chose not to respond. I was really outraged and I cried at my computer. I felt like I needed to talk to those women and try to figure out for myself why this is continuing to happen. I felt really strongly about it so I shifted gears and took a big risk. I moved out of my house, sold my car, and took everything I had to make this project happen and live in the Congo for 50 days. I was photographing my friend’s notes while she interviewed these women. When the women gave me permission, I would go in to photograph them and videotape them. I didn’t want to just have pictures of the survivors, I wanted the viewer to feel like they know an intimate secret so I overlapped images with the handwritten interview notes. Someone from the Africa Center at the Smithsonian told me it was the most powerful work she had seen come out of DRC and encouraged me to continue. That shifted my entire trajectory. I also realized photography was one of many tools at my disposal to tell powerful stories and want really mattered was telling the story in a way it would reach the most people. So I started regularly incorporating writing, video, audio, and virtual reality into my projects. I look at each project with the question: How can we make the most impact?”
Sarah Fretwell in front of the poster for The Truth Told Project gallery exhibition (Democratic Republic of Congo project) at SoHo Gallery in Taipei, Taiwan.
Q: What excites you most about your career?
A: “When I’m traveling, meeting people, doing interviews, or learning about a situation, I feel so strongly that this is exactly what I was made for. I have this unique life experience and skill set and when I’m doing that work I know that this is definitely exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.”
Q: The biggest challenges to your work?
A: “It’s like I live in two worlds. There’s life in Santa Barbara where people have their routine and go to farmers markets and daily life and then I have this whole other world where I’m at a refugee camp or sneaking around the jungle of Papua New Guinea. The most challenging aspect for me is existing in very different worlds and keeping them balanced.”
Sarah Fretwell in Papua New Guinea looking at massive deforestation of one of the last lungs of the planet – much of it for palm oil. (View Forsaking the Next)
Sarah’s work with Santa Barbara-based nonprofit Vitamin Angels distributing much needed prenatal vitamins to mothers in rural Uganda.
Q: What has been one of your favorite projects?
A: “I feel fortunate that I get to tell stories that are very aligned with my values and what matters to me in the world. In the past few years, I really enjoyed working as the onboard correspondent for Tara Expeditions Foundation documenting coral reef ecosystems in the context of climate change. It was just such an incredible life experience and challenge on every level – work, body, mind, and spirit. It was the largest Pacific coral reef research expedition that’s ever been done due to the size of the sample area we studied. The entire expedition took place across the Pacific Ocean for two and a half years. I was aboard for 4,000 nautical miles across the Western Pacific – Wallis/Futuna, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Chuuk, Guam, and Ogasawara. I was doing photography, writing, videos, shooting for French television, Japanese television, and Walt Disney Europe. It was probably one of the most intense experiences of my life where one moment you’re in the most idyllic beautiful location filming a scientist sample in crystal clear water and the next moment you’re seasick and under a crushing deadline editing something for Japanese television and it won’t upload via satellite. The only resource I had to solve every issue was me, myself, and Google. I got to see this part of the world at a really unique moment in time where it’s changing forever and I feel like what we saw and the work we did can really impact humanity if it’s leveraged in the right way.”
Q: How do you measure success in your career?
A: “Am I thriving, am I making a difference, and am I happy? If those things aren’t there I feel like it’s a waste of my limited life energy.”
Tuvaluan children in their front yard on the island of Tarawa taken in 2018 when Sarah went there to interview Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga. (Read more: “How Do You Save A Nation?”)
Q: What impact do you hope to make through your career?
A: “I think the bottom line is connecting humanity and helping people remember that you’re the same as a person in a refugee camp, you just happen to be in a more fortunate situation at this moment. Most of the people I meet around the world want the same things as you and I. Once we have covered basics – like food and shelter – almost everyone I meet is looking for connection, love, and to give more to the next generation. I walk away from all of my projects deeply reminded that WE ARE ALL ONE. If my work can serve as that reminder by helping important stories reach the rest of the world, then I feel like I have served my purpose.”
Q: If you had 5 minutes to teach someone something what would you teach them?
A: “I would teach them meditation because it’s had a really big impact on my life and I have it as a daily practice. It’s such a powerful tool to manage your energy in every aspect of your life.”
Q: What is something you listen to, read, or watch regularly?
A: “Listen to: Rich Roll Podcast and the Mindvalley Podcast
Read: I’m always reading books on my kindle but I’ll usually get into one author at a time and get into their books. But they are almost always in the genre of personal growth and spirituality”
Q: What do you wish you knew more about
A: “I’m a seeker and what I always want to know more about life and purpose. That’s what I spend my time actively looking at through reading new books and learning about the world or personal growth. That’s what I always want to know: How can we be better humans?”
Q: What does your ideal Saturday in Santa Barbara look like?
A: “Surf Rincon really early in the morning. If it’s not surfing then I usually go to yoga and the farmers market. If I didn’t surf in the morning, then I surf or hike in the afternoon. And then just hanging out with friends, go to shows, and have beautiful meals.”
