From award-winning documentaries to work in television and commercials to his current work on "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," Tufts alumnus Josh Seftel (LA '90) has kept busy with directing projects since he graduated - and has won dozens of awards in the process.
Seftel describes working on "Queer Eye" as a great experience. "I think it's really fun to work with the cast," he said. "They are really creative, talented people, and it's really fun to collaborate with them. They are actually more fun in person."
Seftel is one of several directors of the show. He has directed Some of Queer Eye's most popular episodes including the twin episode (viewers may remember the "make-better" recipients wrestling each other to the ground in their brand-new couture, much to style guru Carson Kressley's chagrin), and a poignant episode featuring a soldier about to leave his family for a tour of duty in Iraq.
Although reality TV may be the latest format at which Seftel has tried his hand, the director has applied his talents to a variety of projects.
"I really enjoy trying lots of different things," Seftel said. "To me, that's the thing I like most about being a filmmaker; it's such a varied job, it never gets boring and I'm always learning. I like mixing it up."
A pre-med, French literature major, Seftel took only two film courses while at Tufts - an ExCollege course on film production and a film history class taught by Associate Dean of the Colleges Jeanne Dillon. Although his undergraduate education did not train him specifically for his current career, he feels fortunate to have focused on his other interests while on the Hill.
"On the surface, there's no obvious connection between what I do now and what I studied at Tufts," Seftel said. "I was lucky to have studied something other than film. In order to be a filmmaker, you have to be interested in something and know something about the world. If you don't, you're going to be at a disadvantage."
"Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" is a far cry from Seftel's filmmaking start. He made his first effort in the filmmaking arena during his senior year at Tufts: "I had this professor, Seymour Simches - he was my mentor and he was retiring, so I felt it would be really cool to honor him in some way," Seftel said. "I ended up making this film in my free time."
The film was seen by a professor in the Romance Languages department, who put Seftel in contact with a team of aid-workers traveling to Romania.
Out of this trip came Seftel's award-winning and Emmy-nominated documentary "Lost and Found: The Story of Romania's Forgotten Children." The film exposed the poor living conditions within Romanian orphanages.
Amazingly, Seftel made the film without a formal background in film. "I felt like I wasn't very prepared," he said. "It was trial by fire, throwing yourself into it and learning by doing."
The "learning-by-doing" experiment paid off: the documentary went on to win international awards. "I was really happy that the film reached so many people [because] it was such an important topic," Seftel said. "I felt fortunate that my first professional film was so successful, in terms of reaching people, helping people make some change."
Education and social change have remained an important component of Seftel's work. "I was always interested in teaching and I wanted to be a doctor while I was at Tufts, so when I decided to do some film work, I wanted to deal with subjects related to medicine and helping people," he said. "I think that comes across in my work. I am drawn to that, and it's something I try to do in most of my work."
The filmmaker, who helped to start up the Tufts chapter of Amnesty International while in college, continued to pursue his interest in human rights, geopolitics and education through his films, which have examined issues ranging from the Mass. senior power movement to learning disabilities.
His film "Taking on the Kennedys," which followed the campaign of Kevin Vigilante as he challenged Patrick Kennedy for a Congressional seat, is now used in some political science courses (see box).
"Breaking the Mold: the Kee Malesky Story," a fictional work, was made as an educational comedy for children.
The arts have been another topic of interest for Seftel, as is evident in his work for CBS and WGBH, the Boston-area PBS affiliate. As a result of this work, Seftel was awarded the National Arts Journalism Program Fellowship from Columbia University.
"I had done a lot of work over the last several years about artists with WGBH and CBS News," Seftel said. "I was awarded the fellowship because of my work about artists."
Seftel used the year-long fellowship, which began in the fall of 2002, to recharge creatively. "For me, it wasn't so much an education as much as a chance to refill the well," he said. "I was in New York City, and I went to 25 plays, eight operas, five ballets - I think I saw 60 films in that year - and I just sort of immersed myself in the arts and things that interested me. It was kind of an inspirational year."
Works-in-progress for Seftel include a pilot for Fox about a gossip columnist: "I wrote it and directed it and it's in development at Fox," he said. Also on his list of upcoming and future projects is a piece for WGBH and a full-length documentary about photographers.
For students interested in film as a possible career, Seftel had some words of advice. "If you're interested in going into film, I would learn as much as you can about the things that interest you in the world," he said. "Open yourself up to getting a good, broad education, because more than any sort of film class about how to use a camera and how to edit, you're going to want to be a well-rounded person, so that when you have an opportunity to make a film, you'll have something to say."
And although the Fab Five might not approve of the hyper-casual style of Tufts students, Seftel sees nothing wrong with college students' style.
"I haven't really looked around the campus lately, but I personally think there is nothing wrong with being sloppy," he said. "I say, enjoy it while you can."
