Back on the train, here we are at episode 7 of the Film in Vermont podcast and I am eager to share this conversation with the duo behind Kid Brother Pictures, Mark Freeman and Brandon St Cyr. The two are in the midst of pre-production (and a Seed & Spark campaign. See link below!) for their upcoming project 'First Hunt'.

The team's previous film, The Green Knight, is currently on streaming platforms and all you need to get you hooked is the first image from their trailer. We talk a lot of about making big budget looking films on small budgets, but man oh man, Vermont hillsides are beautiful, but they never looked quite as epic as in that trailer. They do so much within a small budget.

Their passion and dedication to the craft is a beautiful thing and truly inspiring. I hope you enjoy our chat, get involved and if you are listening to this before September 26th, hit the link below and contribute to their campaign today, or reach out to Mark or Brandon via their website and see how you can get involved in other ways as well.

https://seedandspark.com/fund/first-hunt-1#team

https://kidbrotherpictures.com/

I am very excited and happy to be back after a bit of an end of summer/personal life hiatus and we have filmmaker Riley Parrish Allen on the podcast today.

She is an award winning documentary filmmaker (with other credits including Editor, VFX Supervisor, Sound Designer, Production Designer...she has worn many hats, but her current project is called "The Lost Factory" and explores the mystery of the Lumiere Brothers, their impact on modern day photography and cinema and how one of their factories was discovered in Burlington, Vermont of all places.

Riley's passion and curiosity really shown through in this convo and I feel mighty lucky to have been able to chat and eagerly anticipate this film and what she does next!

If you want to contribute to The Lost Factory, check more out at the links below:

The Lost Factory Seed & Spark: https://seedandspark.com/fund/the-lost-factory#story

Riley's website: https://www.riley-parrish-allen.com/

More info on The Lost Factory: https://www.riley-parrish-allen.com/the-lost-factory

Today we catch up with the creator/writer and director (and also wearers of so many other hats, including actors) of the episodic series, Black Girls Kissing. Julia Anderson & Kiersten White are creators passionate about crafting stories that are representative of characters that they wish they saw more of growing up. Stories, themes and characters that better represent them and with this series, they are doing just that.

Black Girls Kissing is a genre-bending anthology series that follows a relationship between two women, Nia and Zora, throughout multiple times/realities.

I thoroughly enjoy every time I get to chat with both Julia and Kiersten and their passion and adaptability is something we all could learn a bit from to take onto our own projects.

If you would like to support their future episodes, head on over to https://blackgirlskissing.com/ to check out more about how you can support and get involved.

And be sure to follow them on their very active Instagram page as well: https://www.instagram.com/blackgirlskissing/

Dillon tanner is a filmmaker, and perhaps equally as important, a community leader and organizer. He’s a founder and one of the small team running the Mothership Monthly Film Festival in Burlington, VT. The self proclaimed “ MOST MONTHLY FILM FESTIVAL IN VERMONT” is an ongoing monthly film festival where filmmakers have one month to make a film of 7 minutes or less related to that month’s theme. The audience at the screening decides the winner by popular vote, and the winner is then endowed with the responsibility of choosing the next month's theme. His latest feature documentary, Roland & Mary (A Winter of Towing in the Northeast Kingdom) is a beautifully human story of a couple who own a towing company and all the challenges that come with piling health concerns and the inevitable difficulties of running a small business in a small rural setting. Its heartwarming, heartbreaking and humorous all package into one extremely personal and unfeigned verite style documentary. Dillon’s softspoken and kindhearted, curious nature made for a wonderful conversation about being a creative person here in Vermont, creating community and fostering the needs of it where it previously didn’t exist and what he sees for the future of filmmaking in the state. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy2GfYAl6hC9VXLT1xEGAMA/videos

https://www.youtube.com/@MothershipMonthlyFilmFest

https://www.instagram.com/mothershipmonthlyfilmfest

Today’s guest is Michael Henaghan. Mike is a Director of Photography who has worked in every aspect of visual story telling from music videos with Joyner Lucas and Jelly Roll (earning a  nomination for an MTV Video Music Award). His work runs the gamut of narrative films, commercials, and music videos but with the consistent thread of keeping a keen eye on creating engaging visuals and best serving the story being the commonality in the broader scope. He has an uncanny ability to tailor his process to align with the vision of each project, ensuring that every frame serves the story and that his work brings the director’s vision to life. A skill, an ability to be a chameleon of sorts, that is beyond critical and endlessly valuable in the current state of the industry.

We chat about Mike’s work from commercial branding (including Nike and Adidas) to shorts to music videos, being a transplant to  Vermont and dig deep into his upcoming feature, If I Could Ride Again and how they got it made here in Vermont.  

https://www.michaelhenaghan.com/

Today's guest is the Technical Director & Senior Producer at Junction Arts and Media in White River Junction (also  known as the  Professional Plugger-Inner). Like many of the guests we will have on, Chico is also a director, an editor, a sound man, actor and so on and so on…the epitome of independent filmmaking. I first met Chico pretty soon after I moved to Vermont as he and his film squad were veterans of the local 48 hour film slam. Their work was wonderfully weird and out there and the fun that they had making their submission was evident in the film they made. Infectious really. Chico still seems to live by that code today. His recent film “Thirst Quenchers” was shot with a crew made up of a friends and contemporaries from the White River Junction area. We dive deeper into that film and all of the layers and Chico continuously kept me laughing with his dry wit and stories…enjoy and be sure to check out all of Chico's personal work and work with JAM at the links below.

https://www.youtube.com/@ChicoEastridge/videos

https://www.youtube.com/@braveseacaptains5059/videos

https://uvjam.org/

The first guest on Film in Vermont is a DP, a director, editor, writer and a whole lot more. His latest film is a doc about Cabot Vermont, centered around Harry's Hardware and depicts a community’s resiliency and the July floods of 2023 and 2024, it is currently screening on Vermont Public. His past work includes DP’ing the horror comedy, The Yorkie Werewolf (set here in Vermont), a handful of wonderfully spooky horror shorts (side note, you should go right now and watch his super short film “Garlic”) and commercial work spanning family operated local Vermont companies to large international sports networks. Our very guest is the incredibly thoughtful and ever creative,  Seth Grant.

I truly enjoyed sitting down in my living room with Seth to have this convo about Vermont, how things can happen here and what he has been up to. Enjoy…

Check out Seth's work at his website

https://www.sethgrantmedia.com/

https://www.instagram.com/sethgrantmedia/

Is this thing working? Is this thing on? Announcing the Film in VT podcast. A companion podcast to the FilminVT website and database. The purpose of this series is to shine a light on film (and film adjacent) professionals making work in the Green Mountain State. What are the challenges? What are the successes? What gets people to stick around and MAKE FILMS HERE despite the bottlenecks we see.

I assume this thing will evolve and change as time goes on, but for now, I am really excited to to talk shop with the incredible creatives all across the state of Vermont who are making important (and entertaining) work.

Lets do this...