Janet Umutuzo, 24, believes that videography is not a man’s job but a job for whoever is capable of doing it. Born and raised in Rwanda, Umutuzo was inspired to join the field as she realised that it had very few women in it.

Majoring in digital media production at IPRC Kicukiro, the dream was to become a TV or radio presenter, but after she was done with studies, she found videography to be much more interesting, and beneficial. She was intimidated by it though, as some people believe that girls who do videography can’t be good at it.

"I was determined to start videography no matter what people thought, I was scared but it wasn’t going to stop me. It is a field that encourages men to join more than it does girls, and that is why there are fewer girls in videography because people think we are not capable. I wanted to prove people wrong, that we too can do the job,” she says.

After graduating in 2020, Umutuzo started looking for a professional internship in videography, and started with Igihe Ltd for four months.

"I wanted to gain some experience in the area and so I started from there. I was lucky because they wanted girls to train at the time and it wasn’t that hard to get an internship, but still they would feel like we were not capable as there are some assignments that we would not be given,” she says.

After completing four months of internship, Umutuzo then applied for another internship with Yago TV Show hoping to do it for a month only.

"I thought I would be given one month to work with them and then keep on looking for other places, but to my surprise, I was offered a job without even completing that one month,” she explains.

The road wasn’t as smooth as Umutuzo thought, mostly because she was discouraged constantly with some people telling her that videography was no job for a girl, or that I wasn’t good at it.

"It was really hard at first because of that mind-set. I would receive some discouraging comments because some thought I wasn’t good at what I do, but there were others who believed in me,” she says.

On the bright side, Umutuzo had her family’s support from day one, especially her siblings who encouraged her a lot. Her parents’ concern was that her job would be very demanding with very little rest.

"My family was very happy about my decision, they were proud and supportive and wished to see me venture into something that I loved and wanted to do. And although they were worried that I was going to be very busy and come home late, they, later on, came to trust me as they saw that I was starting to improve,” she says.

Ad it is with most things, Umutuzo met some challenges but it never pushed her to give up.

"There were challenges and still are, I meet people that discourage me and say that doing this job will make me pick up ‘bad behaviour’ because it requires moving a lot and traveling, but I never get discouraged because I know I want to go far with this and that I want to be good,” she says.

Umutuzo aspires to be a video director in the future and own a studio of her own.

"There are so many girls who fear to be videographers because of a lot of discouragement, but they shouldn’t because this job is not about gender, it is about determination and passion, and it comes with many paybacks,” she says.