“All my life I’ve been interested in telling stories,” says Kalechi Noel (’08), filmmaker, music video director, and president of Kaon Multimedia, Inc. “My grandmother bought the family a little camcorder. I’d film family events, Christmas, birthdays.”
Noel is the personifiation of (intelligently) pursuing one’s passion. Born in Jamaica, West Indies, he and his family came to the U.S. when he was nine and settled on Long Island. After getting his associate degree at Nassau Community College, Noel came to Baruch to study computer information systems, minoring in theater. During senior year, he started the Moviemakers Club, recruiting over 30 students. The result was The Dominick Sanders Story, a feature written and directed by Noel, with a cast and crew made up of Baruch students.
Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management and Dean of Students Ben Corpus hired the young filmmaker upon graduation as a multimedia specialist, a position he still holds. Says Noel of his boss, “He’s been inspirational, motivational, always has good advice.”
In 2008 Noel also founded Kaon Multimedia, Inc. (www.kaonmultimedia.com), which specializes in films, music videos, commercials, and production equipment rental. “Baruch gave me a strong foundation to open and run my business,” he says. “Dealing with clients, budgets—everything came together.”
Baruch provided another valuable asset: Kaon’s vice president, Omar Derby (’08). “He’s my right-hand man,” says Noel. The two met when Noel noticed his fellow student working on a film in the Newman Library. Both currently direct films and videos: Derby’s Crazy Love and Noel’s This Is Our Secret screened at Baruch last year. The latter was chosen to screen at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival in Los Angeles in September, where it won an award for Best Suspense-Thriller Short.
Noel has shot a variety of music videos for such artists as Lil’ Kim, Waka Flocka, and Jada Kiss as well as for the TV show Sesame Street. “Music video projects are lucrative, and the turnaround is quick,” he notes. He is a filmmaker at heart, though; to that end, he is pursuing a master’s in filmmaking at CCNY this fall.
His dream project? “Ultimately I want to tell a story to challenge perceptions, that can evoke certain emotions, make people sit and think. Funny as it may sound, if you can really touch somebody so much that it brings a tear to their eye, you’ve done a good job.”
—Marina Zogbi