Cape & Islands News

Allison Argo: Award-winning filmmaker, CapeCodder

Staying locally while working globally

   Allison Argo takes time out from filming a documentary on chimps. Production photo from ArgoFilms.

By Lacy Clark

People often come to the Cape in search of the solitude and peacefulness that a remote peninsula promises.  Choosing the Cape Cod lifestyle: the quaint town centers, natural beauty, and active community often means a limited selection of career choices.  Yet, as technologies improve professionals are able to conduct their business from pretty much anywhere they want.  The ability to have online video meetings, send files through email, and reach anyone by cell phone makes staying in a centralized metropolitan office superfluous in some fields.  (Indeed, the way cell phone technology is rapidly developing any kind of stationary office may become less popular.) More and more, it's unnecessary to choose between the pleasures of a Cape Cod lifestyle and a fulfilling career.  This in turn makes Cape Cod an even richer place to live with an increasingly diverse community of professionals.

Award-winning filmmaker

At work in her home office in Brewster. Photo by Lacy Clark.

Allison Argo is a perfect example of the new kind of professional found on Cape Cod.  She grew up on the Cape and now works out of an office in her lovely home in Brewster.  As a producer, director and writer, Allison Argo has won numerous awards for her nature documentaries including six national Emmys.  In the past she has worked with National Geographic and more recently she works with the PBS Nature.  Her work "endeavors to lend a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves" in the animal kingdom.  Her documentaries often involve a deep understanding of the issues facing creatures big and small.  Her films have featured animals as far away as elephants in Kenya to creatures as close to home as the horseshoe crab here on the Cape.

The decision to come home

She wasn't always able to live on Cape Cod and make award-winning documentaries at the same time.  She says it's due to the trust she's cultivated in her business relationships that have allowed her to move home and continue her work.  "To pursue my careers, I really couldn't live on the Cape.  Until now with technology the way it is and being so well-established-- I have relationships in the business now that allow me to work from the Cape."  Argo says she's relieved to finally have reached the point where she can leave the city behind. 

"Having worked in three cities [Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington D.C.], I woke up one morning and I said to myself I really just want to hear the birds chirping. And I wanted people at the post office to know my name."  So, she headed home to Cape Cod where she and the Eastham post office employees quickly became good friends. 

Seeing the Sagamore in the distance

Planting in the garden at home on Cape Cod. Photo by Lacy Clark.

Now, the downside.  Documenting the plight of various animal species often involves traveling all over the world.  The remoteness of Cape Cod sometimes works against Argo by adding at least an extra two hours of travel to any trip she takes.  "Coming home from an international flight at midnight and missing the last Plymouth and Brockton bus... that's tough." Yet, she says, "When I see the Sagamore Bridge in the distance, I get a great sense of relief- and I really feel like I'm home.  Having history here, personal history is really cool." 

Is it worth it?  For Argo, absolutely.  She says, "I couldn't live in a place that didn't care about the environment."  Argo strives to walk her own talk.  Being as acutely aware as she is about the impact of human activities on animal wildlife she finds it necessary to be a vigorous recycler, re-user, and reducer.  Cape Cod provides a community in which she can comfortably do that and perhaps even voice her own suggestions about environmental protection locally.  For her, being a part of a community and particularly a community that cares about the environment is priceless. 

Currently, Allison Argo is developing another film in which she hopes to focus on Cape Cod.  For more information about Argo's films, visit her website here.

   Allison and a crew member on location in Yosemite. Photo courtesy of ArgoFilms.