Today we’d like to introduce you to Austin Rich.
Hi Austin, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I am from a small town called Savannah, Tennessee. I moved to Memphis for college, and after my first semester as an engineering student, I felt a bit lost. I then went on a trip with my family to Yellowstone National Park, and I photographed our entire trip with my phone. I then realized how much I loved photography and I began pursuing photo and video. I learned as much as I could and I even began volunteering at my church, The Life Church, taking photos and videos for social media.
About a year later I was offered a job on their creative team, and even though I was still in school I was able to work a lot, and a learned a ton more on the job than I did in the classroom. After a life-changing event, I began pursuing my purpose in life, and I eventually was able to start my own production company. I am now working on lots of freelance work, and I have four films in the works. Two feature film lengths and two will be short films.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
In 2020, my life was forever changed. Facing death I had a single thought that saved my life.
In the afternoon on June 8th, I sat in my car waiting on my girlfriend to get off of work. I was waiting at a park in Collierville near her house when I was approached by a couple of guys. They tried to steal my camera equipment and quite possibly my car. They beat me up to the point that my face was covered in blood, and one of the guys pointed a gun at me. I sat there begging for my life, and at that moment I thought, “I cannot die yet, I have not accomplished anything notable in my life yet.”
After a few minutes of all of this, I was finally able to get away, and I was picked up by an ambulance and taken to the ER. All of my scans were good, and thankfully all I dealt with after was some headaches, scars, and a black eye. All of which went away shortly after except for the scars… Despite all of this though the only thing I was dealing with mentally was the thought that I had. Sure, after the incident, I was much more cautious of my surroundings, but the thing that was bothering me the most was the thought that could have been the last thought I ever had.
After that, I started making changes in my life. I filmed my first film, and I did it about something important to me which was my grandfather. I told his life story in a short film. I was able to show my film back home in Savannah, Tennessee at the local theatre, and we had a big showing that people still talk to me about to this day. Around the same time as the showing, a coworker of my dad’s reached out to me about his uncle who was a World War II hero, and he wanted to share his uncle’s story with the world.
So in April of 2022 after doing lots of research and planning for this film and for starting my own production company, I quit my full-time job to pursue what I am called to do. Now a little over a year later we are almost finished with the film, and it will be my first feature-length film that I have directed, my first paid film that I have directed, and it will be a project that reaches a large audience that will honor the story of World War II hero. The film is called “Ramblings of A Bomber Pilot” and I cannot wait to share it with the world!
I am also working on several other projects at the moment as well as doing freelance video work for local production companies in town. I have plans to do other independent projects in the future, and I am planning to launch a portion of my business where we help families tell and remember the stories of their loved ones forever through a short documentary film.
In my personal life, I also made some changes… in December 2020, I got engaged and in July 2021, I married my wife Grace. Two days after quitting my full-time job my wife told me that she was pregnant and in December of 2022 our beautiful daughter Sloane was born. I was nervous for us to be “on our own” while we were expecting but we have been blessed every step of the way. I am very thankful to our friends, family, church, and for God for supporting us on this journey.
While I can put that single thought to rest… I will continue to be grateful for the opportunity to be alive and I will keep on my mission and not allow myself to be sidetracked once again.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a documentary filmmaker and an aspiring nature photographer. I help others tell personal stories through filmmaking. I come up with creative ways and ideas to share someone’s story to make it the most interesting it can be for viewers. I believe everyone has a story that is worth listening to and if you share it correctly many will want to hear it.
I am most proud of my film “Ramblings of A Bomber Pilot” It comes out later this year, and I believe that many people will enjoy this film and will be amazed at all of the cool things we have done to tell and share this incredible and inspiring story.
As far as the aspiring nature photographer portion, that is more of a passion of mine right now is for me… I take beautiful photos of these amazing places around the world and for now, they are just shown in my house and online by me, but I hope one day I can get paid to do some travel photography as well.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love the music history of this city. It is cool to be in a town that gave a first opportunity to some of the most inspiring artists. Even if for some reason you did not like Elvis, Johny Cash, or Otis Redding you cannot deny the fact that they have inspired so many other musicians. Even the Beatles were blown away when they first met Elvis… Our town’s music history is so cool to me.
The other thing I like best about our city is the people. We have some amazing people in our city.
Unsurprisingly what I like least about our city is our crime. If you want to help fight this issue we can start by volunteering to help areas in need. The Memphis Dream Center is a great organization that is fighting poverty head-on, and I believe that if we had more of that this city would begin to turn.
Contact Info:
- Website:samuelaustinrich.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/samuelaustinrich
- Twitter:twitter.com/samaustinrich
