Great Lakes BIONEERS presents the documentary film, King Corn from Mosaic Films Inc., at the Traverse City State Theatre on Monday, March 31 at 7:30 PM. Before the film, join our special guests at a Locavore Hors d’Oeuvres Challenge hosted by Serenity Tea Bar and Café, located across Front St. from the theater from 5:30-7:00PM. Everyone is welcome to participate in the Locavore Hors d’Oeuvres Challenge by bringing a finger-food that features ingredients grown and produced within our local foodshed. A dish is not required and the pre-film reception is free.

During the reception, we will show the full 25-minute version of our CSA video, Talkin’ Bout Making Culture: Community Supported Agriculture in Michigan and visit with special guest Ian Cheney, co-producer and co-star of King Corn.

We’ll then go across the street to the State Theatre where we’ll show the 5 minute version of Talkin’ Bout Making Culture before watching King Corn. Following the film, there will be a brief Q&A with Ian Cheney.

Hope to see you there!

Before refreshing my memory with video footage, I’d like to jot some notes here on what I see this documentary video project becoming.

Some major concepts I would like to get across in the video:

• CSA is more than a clever way to buy/sell fresh veggies. CSA is re-creating culture. As Michael Pollan points out in Omnivore’s Dilemma, most of our ancestor’s food choices were dictated by culture: accumulated wisdom of what was tasty and good for you, of how (for instance) one manages to eat year round in a climate that only allows plant growth for about half the year. Somehow, we’ve let science and policy (in the form of nutritional analyses, recommended daily allowances, toxicity levels, etc), and technology (refrigerators, refrigerated airplanes) take over in deciding what and how we eat. CSA offers a platform to begin thinking differently about what and how we eat. Relationship and connection to people and to place comes in to play. To think of food as more than belly-filling fuel to get through the day, or obsessive comfortings, or even one’s culinary pallette, but instead as a profound connection to a piece of land, to the earth and a particular environment, climate, etc., and to particular humans that care for and nurture that food…that’s a major cultural shift. CSA certainly encourages eating more veggies and probably more diverse veggies, both clear boons to health. Some choice in what to eat is given up - you eat what comes in the CSA box - but this, too, has a logical and spiritual(?) progression through the season: the food in the box is what is in season and available. Much more to say here, but let’s move on.
• I want to challenge people’s stereotype of a farmer. The farmers will do this themselves, but this is something I want to stay conscious of as the film comes together. CSA farmers in particular are quiet activists creating big changes in their community (see the first point).
• I want to emphasize the “community” part of CSA. An increasing number of people know loosly the basic economic concept/arrangement of CSA. The connections and feeling of belonging that come along with it is probably less obvious from the outside. We can help flesh that out.

I’m still struggling a bit with the overarching structure of the film. My initial idea was that I was creating more or less a “marketing” piece, albiet one told through the fun story of a bicycle tour, but nonetheless marketing the more subtle ideas of selling points of CSA. Something that farmers could show to potential members, that community activists could show to garner support for CSA, etc. I saw it as being largely topic driven, broken up into “chapters” that focused on a particular topic area or concept, and using a collage of interview and footage from throughout the farm to illustrate the topic. I am now beginning to wonder if the whole thing would be much more watchable and, successful basically, if it were told more as the story of our trip, perhaps landing on a few farms where some of the topics of interest are particularly apparent, but maintaining more of the trip sequence, keeping footage from a farm together in blocks, (maybe) pulling from our blog from the road for both insights into farms as well as juicy pieces about our trip and our personal drama, human story, etc. Hmmm.

But today, a rainy morning offers me a chance to get back into the video. I had a brief but inspiring chat with Cynthia Vagnetti, documentary photographer and film maker, at last night’s local foods dinner of the Kellogg Food and Society Conference.

At this point, we have reviewed most of the interview footage (upwards of 15 hours worth) and have pull out the clips that may be interesting for the documentary. It is becoming increasingly clear that the next step is really to sit down and write out at storyline. I will get started on that today.

marty

We have also created some broad thematic categories that may be interesting to explore in the “what is CSA?” feature. They are listed (in rough brainstorming terms) here.

1. “What is CSA?”, a 20-30 minute documentary exploring the ins and outs of CSA farms, what they are, and how they impact family farm economy, community, and land stewardship. Drawing from the wide variety of farms visited during the tour, this documentary will provide a deeper understanding of CSA’s to an audience that has heard of CSA but wants to know more. It will be useful to CSA farms and community activists as an education and farm recruitment tool, and to Extension as an in-house and community education tool.
2. “CSA by CYCLE tour” – This documentary will focus more on the bicycle journey, providing a ‘human interest story’ that will expose a wider audience to CSA. It may be appropriate for local cable viewing, film festivals and public television.
3. “Talkin’ CSA Blues” – a music video featuring an informative song by Michigan folk musician Seth Bernard and video footage from the CSA by CYLE tour. See http://www.glbconference.org/csatour2006/csa-trailer.html for a preview.
4. “Feature Farmer” shorts – brief montages showing particular farmers and farms, telling their story and philosophy, etc.
5. as we go through the video, it seems likely that other shorts/ extras will pop up, like “bloopers” footage, or a track aimed at farmers that highlights growing practices and other technical details of CSA operation.

Here’s a more official sounding explanation:

Turtle Spring Productions (TSP) is a video production cooperative gathered to carry out the CSAbyCYCLE documentary video project. The mission of TSP is to create, promote and distribute a video that educates people about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), CSA farms, and local food systems; and inspires and empowers them to make changes in their eating, purchasing and lifestyle habits. The video will document experiences and farms from the 2006 Michigan CSAbyCYCLE bicycle tour. Martin Heller, Michelle Ferrarese and Dustin Edwards are primarily responsible for carrying out the TSP mission, but others may be engaged as necessary.