Angelike Contis

Mount Mansfield Community Television

Angelike Contis is comfortable behind the camera. The Jericho native spent years as a documentary filmmaker before returning to her hometown and taking the helm at Mount Mansfield Community Television, a job she has held since 2012.

MMCTV, a non-profit organization, was founded in 1997. The majority of the station’s output involves filming municipal meetings in Jericho, Underhill, and Richmond. Since starting work as Executive Director, Contis has presided over a number of changes. Initially, all the meetings were just shown on cable television but now, everything except for some copyrighted events like concerts, are available online. MMCTV used to be funded through cable subscribers but with this change, they have requested and received additional funding from the towns they cover.

The station also does media education and partners with local non-profits including schools, libraries, and senior centers, filming events for them and also editing work that they submit. Often middle school students help out as volunteers and become paid workers when they reach high school. MMCTV also takes part in a number of community events.

After graduating from MMU, Contis got a degree in Social Studies from Harvard and then worked for an Argentinian documentary filmmaker in the Boston area. When her sister moved to Greece, Contis decided to follow for a year to do a documentary on the island of Tinos. One year turned into eleven during which she made videos about people behind the scenes at the Olympics, Greek dancing in the United States, and a film about stray dogs which was called Muttumentary.

Contis also wrote for the English language version of the Athens News. Her first assignment was doing movie reviews. “We were like vampires,” she said. “It was mostly American films and we’d be sitting in the dark during the day eating tiropita (cheese pies).” Contis praised the Athens News as one paper which wasn’t connected to a political party.

Contis eventually moved back to the US, settling in New York City. She wrote for Fodors, Edible Queens, Odyssey, and the English language version of the Greek National Herald. When her son was born, she decided to move back to Jericho so he would have access to green space and more time with his grandparents.

Contis continues to make documentaries but has cut back a bit on that work. She is proud of a film she made about the late Jericho artist Marcia Rosberg, and she is working on one about Deborah Rawson, the namesake for one of our libraries. “I love how documentary filmmaking lets you step into people’s lives and find another way of looking at the world,” she said.

Contis is a member of the Vermont Access Network which is a consortium of the 24 public access television stations in the state. She is currently the chair of the advocacy committee after several years as president of the organization. “These are the nicest people you’ve ever met,” she said, noting that public access TV employees were deemed essential during the pandemic.

“I think the thing that’s interesting in our field is how everything is really changing,” Contis said. In the pre-cell phone days, people would come to the MMCTV studio to film things but these days, they are more likely to borrow equipment and do the project themselves. To help get more people into the field, MMCTV leads summer camps and workshops during the February break for students. Some of the students Contis taught in those workshops are now graduating high school with plans to get involved in media. In addition to her work with MMCTV and Vermont Access Network, Contis serves on Jericho’s Town Meeting Reimagined Task Force and the Chittenden County Communication Union District.

To help connect with the past, Contis has been spending time digitalizing old shows. “I’m an archival nerd,” she said. “We’re really good at putting things online but I also have about a bazillion hard drives.” She is excited about MMCTV’s newest project. They have just received their FCC license to start a low power radio station. As the only full-time staff person for the station, Contis is just beginning the process of trying to pull together volunteers for the project, but she is looking forward to expanding the organization’s work and bringing information and entertainment to even more people.