Small Town Boy, Big Dreams

How one CSU Grad has followed his dreams to help change the world

It only takes one idea, one dream, and one person to make a difference. BlueShoe Media founder and Colorado State University graduate student, Kyle Rasmussen is a prime example of what one can do when they follow their dreams.

Rasmussen grew up in a small town in southwestern Colorado and graduated from Norwood Public High School in 2009 where he was co-valedictorian. After high school graduation, Rasmussen began attending Colorado State University. Rasmussen recalls his freshman year at CSU saying that he started off as an engineering student at the suggestion of his parents. Upon sitting down with his advisor to discuss a four-year-plan, Rasmussen quickly realized that engineering was not what he wanted to do and asked, “What else do you have?”

Rasmussen says that journalism fell into his lap. Journalism was a way that he could combine his creative mind with his interest for the technical side of cameras and it provided him with an opportunity to travel. All of these interests were important in the development of Rasmussen’s business, but what formed BlueShoe Media was Rasmussen’s feelings of empathy.

“When I was studying journalism at CSU I knew that I didn’t want to do reporting journalism and that I had an interest in making documentaries, but I didn’t agree with everything the other companies were doing. I thought that starting my own company was the way to go, so I launched BlueShoe Media to connect with the empathy that I want to promote in my movies,” said Rasmussen.

Rasmussen really wanted to focus on the empathy aspect of documentaries after watching the documentary Blood Brother, in which a man goes to India and works in orphanages, “Kind of like a big brother”. Rasmussen says that he left the theater crying. He says that he felt emotionally connected to the orphans and to Rocky, the man who had gone to help. He realized the power of documentaries and how it is a form of storytelling that can connect people through emotions.

“BlueShoe Media is a company founded upon the idea of empathy, connecting people with feelings that are so far out of reach. Everyone feels joy, pain, and sadness, but the way we feel it and the situations vary. BlueShoe Media is supposed to be a way to talk to people and give them a chance to walk in someone else’s shoes,” said Rasmussen on his company.

Kyle and BlueShoe Media are working on a project, “Without Color”, a documentary set in India exploring the issues women face, especially the widows in India. Rasmussen emphasizes that though it focuses on widows, the project is more than that. It is a women’s issue, and even more than that it is a societal issue because it is societies that decide how their women are treated.

“With widows, they are caught in a political, religious, and cultural hitch. Their culture doesn’t have a value for them. Women in general don’t have as much value to them as men, they are put second. Widows are viewed as a burden,” said Rasmussen. He goes on to explain how women are undervalued in many cultures, not just India. He says that one of the problems is how people like to lump people together in a group and references how people are viewing all Muslims as terrorists after the bombing in Paris and how that is not a good way to look at people.

“We need to view these women as people, like you or me. They desire to see their children, to be loved. It is important for their story to be heard,” said Rasmussen.

“If someone told me a bunch of CSU undergraduates and alums fresh out of the program were going to attempt a feature documentary in a foreign country, I would have had my doubts. Seeing the whole thing now, though, it’s just different. There is an energy there, and almost an unspoken sense of how important this film will be. It’s hard to think of that in the moment I suppose, having so many different things going on, but if you think about where it’s going I believe it’s amazing,” said senior journalism major, Michael Ball.

Ball is doing an independent study with Rasmussen in BlueShoe Media. They met during Ball’s junior year where Rasmussen was his video editing teacher. Upon seeing that they had similar interests, Rasmussen invited Ball to intern with his company as he went into his project, “Without Color”.

“Kyle really gets the best out of people, and it’s probably because he is just such a genuinely good guy. You want to be successful with him, and you know he is going to be,” said Ball on Rasmussen.

Both Rasmussen and Ball talked about how integral teamwork is when working on a project. They both said that the project wouldn’t have happened without Ashley Colburn, another CSU alumni, telling Rasmussen about the struggle of widowed women in India.

Since his first discussion with Colburn, Rasmussen has finished the first phase of the project and has gone to India for seven weeks with eight people for only $25,000. While in India they spent most of their time in three cities Delhi, Chennai, and Vrindavan. Vrindavan is called the City of Widows for how many widows live within the city. Here, Rasmussen and his team interviewed many women as they discussed the problems the women faced living in India.

“The interviews were extremely emotional. We had translators because the women spoke in Hindi, but once I realized that these women could be like my mother or my grandmother, that’s when I put my feet in their shoes. I realized that that was my mother forced to dress in white, starving herself waiting to die, feeling abandoned. There wasn’t an interview that we did that we didn’t come away from crying,” said Rasmussen.

He recalled a wealthier woman by the name of Neerja Malik who provides support to these women. She said, “You educate a girl, you educate a family. You educate a family, you educate a society”.

They have moved on to phase two where they are trying to raise $300,000, most of which is for staff compensation. They are also planning another trip to India to get more interviews.

Rasmussen says that part of why he feels the need to spread the love and change is from growing up in such a small community, it made him feel loved all of the time unlike he would have if he had grown up somewhere larger. He says that the greatest challenge to spreading the change is the resistance other countries have to foreign film-makers, especially American film-makers. Rasmussen says that these countries view the film-makers as judging their societal norms. This is why Rasmussen says that BlueShoe Media is trying to include partners in India because that is where he’s really trying to make the change.

The thing Rasmussen says is the least constructive to change is guilt. He says that instead of feeling guilt for coming back to his comfortable lifestyle in America, he feels a responsibility to help those who are less fortunate by bringing their story to light.

Rasmussen has now been in his graduate program for three years. Though this is a long time for someone to pursue their Master’s degree, Rasmussen isn’t concerned because it has allowed him to pursue his passion.

“Change comes not by feeling guilty with life here, guilt is a dead end. What can I do right now as a step? Change comes from small steps at a time. Some of the greatest change has come from people who take small steps at a time and that is beautiful,” said Rasmussen.