"There was a whole table of older males," she said. "I felt so stupid. I wanted to learn more so I could be on their level."
Massey is the first female director of the Film Society in over a decade. Although she originally felt out of place at a table surrounded by men, her earlier insecurities have influenced the way she now directs Film Society meetings.
"I've been arguing for romantic comedies," she said.
Reaching out to the general Dartmouth community, rather than running an exclusive club for the discussion of esoteric cinema, has been her ultimate goal, she said.
"I want to make film not an elitist thing," Massey said. "Everyone watches movies."
Massey decided to become a film and television studies major after taking "Introduction to Film: From Script to Screen" (Film 1) her freshman fall.
"It taught me to think differently about art," Massey said. "I knew that's what I wanted my niche to be."
She is now working on a thesis project in the department -- writing the first season of her own television show.
"It's about recent college grads living in New York City trying to make it," Massey explained.
But Massey isn't only interested in writing for the screen. In addition to serving as the director of DFS, Massey is also editor-in-chief of the Stonefence Review -- the Council on Student Organizations"funded arts and literature quarterly -- making her a large presence in campus art culture. Still, she says that she has always struggled to identify herself with the artistic ideal.
"I always wanted to be an artist with a capital 'A,'" she said.
She stated how important it is not to be intimidated by the art scene, citing Pulitzer Prize"winning playwright and author Wendy Wasserstein, who she saw speak at Dartmouth her freshman year, as inspiration.
"She said, 'At college all the arts kids wore black and were way too cool,' and she never fit in that way," Massey said. "But then she did her own thing, and she ended up being really successful."
Massey hails from Yarmouth, Maine, where she was involved in her high school theater program and literary magazine. At Dartmouth, one of Massey's favorite art-related memories is the all-expenses-paid trip she took to work at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. In addition to watching previously unreleased films at the festival, Massey was able to meet famous directors such as Noah Baumbach and Werner Herzog. She counts both directors among her cinematic heroes, especially Herzog.
"I like artists who don't take themselves too seriously, who concentrate on their craft and perfecting it," she said.
Another achievement she is particularly proud of includes the first handmade issue of the Stonefence Review in Dartmouth history, which came out last summer. As for the Film Society, Massey mentioned the tribute to Kevin Bacon, which she organized during Winter term. Massey said meeting Bacon was "really surreal."
"He looks exactly like on screen, but really down-to-earth," she said. "It was cool to walk down Main Street with him and people were like, 'Is that Kevin Bacon?'"
What would Massey advise for students pursuing a major in the arts at Dartmouth?
"Be ready to spend a lot of your time at the Hop."
But she also emphasized the difficulty involved in explaining to others the motivation behind following less practical aspirations.
"Be ready to tell your parents your goals," she said. "I told my mom what my major was, and she said, 'Oh, you can still go to law school.'"
