Producer, Cinematographer, Subject: Brooke Hess

Brooke is a freelance science journalist based in Truckee, CA. With a bachelor’s degree in geoscience and a master’s degree in science journalism, she focuses on stories about the environment, climate science, and water. As a former Team USA Whitewater Kayaker, she holds a deep love for rivers and a desire to report on the threats they face. Brooke is a co-founder, producer, and cinematographer for Ripple Skip Collective, a production company creating documentary films about river conservation issues. For their recent award-winning feature documentary, The Grand Salmon, Brooke and two other women kayaked 1,000 miles from the source of the Salmon River in Idaho, to the Pacific Ocean, following the natural migration of wild salmon populations, in order to find out why the fish are going extinct.

 

In addition to being a documentary filmmaker, Brooke is a freelance photojournalist and science writer. She completed a science writing internship at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where she reported on the science behind the DAVINCI Mission to Venus, and her recent reporting for The Associated Press has been featured on CNN, PBS, The Today Show, the LA Times, the Seattle Times, The Wall Street Journal, US News and World Report, and USA Today