Stacy Goldate ’90 captures her curiosity on the big screen

Stacy Goldate ’90 has spent her life chasing her curiosity and capturing extraordinary stories frame after frame. 

An award-winning documentary filmmaker and editor, Stacy’s portfolio includes documentaries that have led to bipartisan legislation, like Our Father and Inhospitable. 

“If there’s one thing that is required with making documentaries, it’s curiosity,” Stacy said. “Being encouraged as a student at St. Mary’s to experiment, get out of my comfort zone, ask questions, and research allowed my foundation as a documentary filmmaker to be formed at a young age.”

Stacy’s documentary, Our Father was featured on Netflix’s top ten for weeks after its release. Her work has been featured at Sundance and has won the Clarity of Vision Award at Sundance 2023, Best Documentary at Phoenix Film Festival, and the GLAAD Media Award. 

A common thread through her work has been asking questions, and knowing which advice to follow.

After graduating from Vanderbilt University with a major in Human and Organizational Development, Stacy went on to pitch documentaries to her then-mentor. After planning an entire story complete with interviews, video planning, and story outline, her mentor advised that people want to watch feel-good stories like the ones told on Oprah, not the complex and nuanced one she proposed. He suggested it could be an independent film but threatened that it would not succeed.

She didn’t listen to him.

Stacy continued to follow after topics she was curious about and create the human stories she believed people should know. Following her gut, Stacy’s portfolio grew, and her former mentor’s advice proved to be false. 

“You can never truly know the impact you will have,” Stacy said. “I do know that people like documentaries. They humanize stories and make them real.”

She spoke to St. Mary’s freshmen with a similar message last year. Visiting the eighth-grade Ensemble filmmaking class, Stacy talked about her work and her passion for storytelling originating in her own school days.

She told them, “Your work can leave an impact on anyone, even when you are young. As a student, you have the freedom to take advantage of the resources around you. Do it. This is a special time when your only job is just to learn and to make work you care about.” 

In her own St. Mary’s days, Stacy took the guidance of former St. Mary’s history teacher, Ms. Joan Traffas. She recognized Stacy’s interest in topics regarding philosophy and psychology and suggested a term paper topic about Freud. This sparked a vibrant curiosity in Stacy that has stayed with her since graduating from St. Mary’s. 

While initially pursuing a career in journalism, Stacy interned at BBC Radio and CNN. However, she soon realized that journalism was not the right path for her. 

“I have too strong of opinions and emotions, so I realized I am more of an activist. There’s a place for reporting, but that’s not my place. I wanted to make work with journalistic integrity without being confined to journalism and reporting conventions. I want to dig deep and have difficult conversations. I want to have fun with the sound design, score, and editing. I want to play with structure to spark dialogue and not give clear black-and-white answers,” Stacy said.

St. Mary’s girls are given ample opportunity to be curious, ask questions, and tell stories like Stacy’s through the school newspaper, fireside chats, senior speeches, and more. Stacy believes that this curiosity fostered at St. Mary’s is crucial to being important members of the world. 

“St. Mary’s students are in a position to bring their curiosity and questions to the dinner table, their neighbors, places of worship, and conversations with friends – or strangers,” Stacy said. “They have the power to share their love of questions and learning in ways that can really open up conversation. St. Mary’s girls really have the potential to leave an impact on their community and even the world.”