Shani Heckman’s (Merrill ’95, economics) journey to the arts was anything but a straight line. The new tech director for the Film and Digital Media Department (FDM) has now spent decades working in the film industry highlighting social injustices and their community.
Before coming to University of California, Santa Cruz as a student, Heckman made the decision to pursue STEM. They were deterred from the common way of thinking that women should not not do math, and in Heckman’s defiance they did just that. After high school they entered a tech school to study electrical engineering, and was the only woman in the program.
Despite Heckman’s merit in engineering, they were still plagued with everyday sexism and misogyny. “Women in engineering at that time, even if we had the right answer, we had to fight that our answer was right,” says Heckman. “Even if you were the number one in the class getting 110% on exams, somehow they still thought you’re going to get the coffee. And I thought that I could not be that person.”
Heckman left engineering and transferred to UC Santa Cruz. Not wanting to lose all the work they’d done in math, they decided to study economics. They went into accounting after graduating, a career they describe as boring but a good way to always have a job.
Their growing dissatisfaction led Heckman to start event planning in Santa Cruz, and eventually the larger Bay Area. One of their early endeavors, Girl Fest (95-03), aimed at putting women-led musicians, poets and performers on stage.
In the late ‘90s they moved to San Francisco and became a drag king. Heckman describes themselves as gender neutral, and their queerness is at the forefront of their creative practice.
On stage Heckman realized that a lot of the videos of drag were being filmed by straight people. “I felt like we could make our own films,” says Heckman, so they decided to do just that. Heckman went back to school to study film. Their first film was called Wrong Bathroom (2005) and explored gender identity and the never ending debate about which bathrooms trans people can use. While making their own films they also got work through IATSE, one of the biggest unions in the film industry.
Currently, Heckman is living in San Francisco but planning to move back down to Santa Cruz. They love being out in nature: hiking or kayaking. They also describe themselves as a “big gardener” with a garden where they grow their own food.
At UC Santa Cruz Heckman can continue their creative journey, and find new ways to make films that highlight their community. “We might think our experience is unique, but at the end of the day, we’re just another human being, and most other human beings are having that experience too.”