Meet Rusty Baker

Rusty Baker’s eye for visual storytelling has been ever present through each of his careers. The South Dallas native attended the University of North Texas, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Radio/Television/Film in 1999. As a student, Baker produced, directed and edited the feature-length documentary, Faded Glory, The Von Erich Story. The student production received local acclaim and was featured in the Dallas Video Festival, Forth Worth Film Festival, and USA Film Festival. 

After September 11, 2001, Baker answered the nation’s call by returning to the Marine Corps Reserves after a four-year hiatus. He was trained as a military journalist at the Defense Information School at Fort Meade, Maryland, and served as a combat photographer for ten years. Baker volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan during a highpoint of terrorist insurgency due to the 2004 Afghan presidential elections. His images and feature stories were published in dozens of magazines and Web articles. 

Upon returning stateside, Baker was hired as a civilian by the U.S. Navy as the Deputy Public Affairs Officer of Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, Texas. He served as the Webmaster, social media content manager, photographer and editor of the installation’s newspaper, The Sky Ranger.

In 2010, Baker would again volunteer to deploy as a Marine to Afghanistan, but this time, as the senior enlisted advisor to 159 Marines. With every combat logistics patrol and helicopter mission, First Sgt. Baker packed his personal camera. He captured over 6,000 compelling images of the Bravo Company’s men and women who fearlessly served in harm’s way. 

Just three months after demobilizing and returning to his civilian position, Baker was hand-selected to deploy to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in preparation of significant global media interest in the Sept. 11 war crimes trail hearings. When he returned home a third time, he was soon offered the top civilian position as the Public Affairs Officer at NAS Fort Worth JRB. Of his accomplishments, his favorite was coordinating a Vietnam War Veteran “Welcome Home” Commemoration, where his team conducted several interviews of veterans to be preserved as “oral histories” in the U.S. National Archives. 

He retired from the Marine Corps and federal civilian service to become a stay-at-home dad and home-school teacher for his special-needs children. During that time, he produced the YouTube Channel, Picking Up the Pieces of Us, posting over 200 vlogs of a family-with-autism’s adventures on the road. 

Baker has long been an advocate of veterans’ return and reintegration into society. He has been trained as a trauma-conscious yoga instructor for military and first responders struggling with PTSD. His volunteer work with autistic children has led to his advocacy of Autism Awareness and acceptance. In his spare time, Baker teaches stop-motion movie making to special-needs classes, like the Hope for Autism School. He is also a Scouting America Merit Badge Counselor for movie making, photography and journalism. 

Rusty Baker returned to UNT after 26 years to pursue his MFA in Documentary Filmmaking. In his first year of the program he produced and directed Center Point, a short documentary about volunteer firefighters involved in the 2025 Guadalupe River flood. The film had its world premiere at the Flatland Film Festival in Lubbock, giving his former Marines a first look.  Baker created a feature-length edit of Center Point to show in Center Point and Kerrville on the first anniversary of the floods.  He is currently directing The Ripple Effect, a call-to-action documentary that focuses on the volunteers of an adaptive surf camp for special-needs children. His passion remains in telling the unique stories of veterans and people with autism.