THE VIEWFINDER

Tijah Bumgarner

Filmmaker and Professor, Marshall University

SUPERPOWER: Tenacity

While growing up in the small Fayette County town of Meadow Bridge, Tijah Bumgarner had every intention of leaving. “But then I realized that I felt that way because of how the media portrayed West Virginia at that point,” she says.

She moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting, ultimately landing at a community college to learn filmmaking. “I watched films that I had never heard of and ones that had never played at theaters where I grew up,” she says. She felt she had stories to tell—stories about growing up in small-town West Virginia that would broaden the understanding of Appalachia.

Her first film was the 2017-released Meadow Bridge, about a young girl “growing up on the edge of poverty and possibility.” Several films and other projects followed, which she either appeared in, co-directed, co-produced, or served as cinematographer for. The list includes Becoming Annette, Her Hope Haven, Occupational Hazard, Patchwork, Picture Proof, Quarantine Life, and Small Town Universe.

After earning a master’s degree in media studies from West Virginia State University, Bumgarner was hired as associate professor of filmmaking at Marshall University’s School of Art & Design. She teaches all aspects of filmmaking, from theory to practice, documentary to fiction, and graphic design to animation. She hopes students find a passion for filmmaking through her classes. “I want them to know that film is a powerful medium that has the power to change lives,” she says.

Bumgarner is grateful for the work that she does and is rewarded when people say it is eye-opening. She’s tenacious, passionate about the work she does and sharing her knowledge with others. In fact, after her 2009 graduation from the California Institute of the Arts, she emailed the dean of the College of Arts & Media at Marshall to suggest a filmmaking program and offer to teach it. It wasn’t an immediate yes, but 15 years later, she heads the first BFA program in filmmaking in West Virginia.

Currently, Bumgarner is pursuing a doctoral degree at Ohio University. She credits her mom for instilling the work ethic that has proven invaluable in her career.

WRITTEN BY JULIE PERINE

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