Filming on our food documentary has paused briefly this week while Dan finishes up some design work for a local non-profit organization, so I’m taking the time to do some administrative and writing work on the project. You know, work that doesn’t require the knowledge of how to work a huge expensive video camera!

Last week, however, the two of us conducted our first on-camera interview and shot some beautiful footage of cows, grass and morning sky out at Snowville Creamery. We interviewed Warren Taylor, the enthusiastic and articulate founder of the creamery and got to the farm just in time to get some beautiful shots of the cows walking to the milking barn in the clear, gold-tinged morning light.

This meant that two night owls had to pretend to be early birds and be up and out of our houses at 5:15 AM, and because it was so early, we got lost on our way out to the farm, BUT thanks to Dan’s GPS and navigational skills, we got there and got set up before the sun rose so it was all just fine. The light was so beautiful, we resolved to get up as early as possible for all on-farm shoots from now on.

Thank God for coffee, is all I can say.

The end result, however, was that the video and the stills we shot turned out beautifully, and gave the two of us more of an idea of how the trailer for the film, and the film itself will look. It helped us crystallize the surprisingly simpatico vision that exists in our two separate heads into one vision, and indirectly, it ended up giving Zak the idea for what will now be the title, not the working title, of the film.

Zak, who is doing the soundtrack for the film on both acoustic and electric guitar and Native American flute, came up with the title while he and I were driving back from Columbus on Tuesday.

“Hand to Mouth: The Athens, Ohio Food Cycle.”

Hand to mouth, of course, is an phrase that is often used in Appalachia to describe folks who are so poor that everything that they do is centered around having enough to eat. In this context, we want to turn the phrase on its head and show something that is usually a negative stereotype about our region–and reclaim the phrase, as it were, to mean, that which we grow and produce with our hands turns right around and feeds us instead of being shipped half a country away. The “food cycle” part of the title refers to the cycles of agriculture–the seasons, a time to plant, a time to reap, circular movements rippling outwards, ever moving and changing and growing.

So, that’s the news on the documentary. In the next few weeks, as soon as Dan is done with his current freelance project, we’ll return to a flurry of activity, going out to shoot in various locations around Athens and the surrounding counties, collecting footage to then turn into the trailer which we hope to have ready by the end of September, though we make no promises.

Longtime readers will recall that oh, a year or so ago, it was mentioned that my friend and videographer, Dan Trout, and I were working on a documentary film about the food community here in Athens, Ohio.

I am pleased to announce that the cogitation, pre-production equipment gathering and research phase is finished and as of last week, actual filming has begun.

And, as you can see, we have a name for our production company–which I suggested as it uses both of our last names to good effect and it’s tangentially about food. Dan took my idea and turned it into a really readable, memorable and cute graphic for all of our business cards, release forms, letterhead and suchlike stuff.

Dan went out shooting b-roll footage last Wednesday and then he and I went out on Saturday to the Farmer’s Market to shoot specific images to use in the trailer for the film, which does have a working title (Simple Gifts: The Athens Food Model) and to talk with some of the people we want to interview on camera.

I was unprepared for the enthusiasm with which our project was met by pretty much every person with whom we spoke. I was sick with nervousness; I had awakened overly early in the morning and was unable to go back to sleep because I was dreading talking to people because I had the fear that no one would want to talk with us, or that they would think that the project wasn’t worthwhile.

I was so wrong–it turned out that it was just my nagging self-doubts at play in my head. From the very first farmer I spoke with (Star of Shade River Farm), everyone was unfailingly positive, and many were exceptionally enthusiastic. Even farmers who started out as somewhat suspicious warmed up when we described our project as an independently produced feature-length documentary that shows how Athens grew this amazing local food system, with the aim of showing people in other communities how they can do the same thing. Once we got it across to people that we wanted to empower other communities to look at how Athens managed it and then start a similar system in their areas, farmers were ready for us to come to their farms and talk.

They -want- us to tell their stories, not only for the sake of these stories themselves–but so that other people can make their own stories and successes elsewhere.

That meant a great deal to both Dan and I. In fact, it rather blew us both away. It was truly breathtaking.

Between getting contact information from farmers and community organizers and business owners, I took some still photographs to use in marketing and packaging. Dan tells me that much of his footage caught the same look as my photographs–which capture much of the feel we want for our film. We want it to be beautiful and uplifting–not only because Athens is a beautiful place, but also as an antidote to many of the recent food-related documentary films that are out there, which, let’s be honest, are pretty bleak.

We have a pretty full schedule of shooting set up for the next couple of weeks; our goal is to have a trailer put together and ready to present by the end of August or the beginning of September. We are taking a full year–a cycle of the seasons to complete our filming, and then begins the long, arduous editing process.

This project, which is being independently funded and produced, is going to be a long, time-consuming work, but it is work that I believe has worth in the world. Feeling the excitement of the food producers here in Athens as we described our project, seeing their faces light up as we talked, showed me that this can mean a lot not only to Dan and I, not only to Athens and to the food community here, but to viewers out there in the world. The story of our town’s food system can really make a difference in the lives of people in other small communities.

We want viewers to feel uplifted, cheered and empowered by this documentary. We want them to see that there are things they can do to change their own communities, that the power to grow a sustainable local food network lies in their own capable hands.

Not in the hands of the government, or of corporations.

But simply in the hands of ordinary citizens. Individuals who do seemingly ordinary things, but who, when working together, can build something extraordinary.