I directed and produced this film. From Portugal to Uruguay, and Mexico City to New Zealand, we captured a story about how the world’s next great companies are coming from places far from the garages in Palo Alto that gave rise to Google, HP, Apple, and the other Silicon Valley giants.
Brought to you exclusively by CarbonTV, American Harvest is a serial documentary about the oldest industry known to mankind… farming. Follow along as we take you on a journey to see how farming is now becoming the most advanced industry the world has ever seen.
American Harvest follows Johnson Harvesting, Inc., a family owned custom farming and harvesting outfit in Central Minnesota. Originally an 80-acre family farm from the 1800s, the Johnson family farm evolved into a much bigger operation with over 2,500 acres. Since the 1950s, Johnson Harvesting has been transporting heavy machinery to southern states in the early
spring, and harvesting fields as they travel north back home to Minnesota.
The business is now led by brothers Lance and Shawn. Every year the brothers repeat the same cycle – prep, plant, route the harvest, and train a crew of young men to operate combines, grain carts, and semi trucks for the 8 months of harvest from Texas to Minnesota.
American Harvest also explores the support system around Johnson Harvesting. Bob Ehlers, an area farmer and consultant is a longtime friend of the Johnson’s. His associate, Leah Johnson, niece of Lance and Shawn, has taken her lifetime of farming influence and turned it into a career
of her own. Area agronomists, Ag salesmen, and researchers also add to the story.
The basics of farming and harvesting haven’t changed much over the years. What has changed isthe technology and the channels through which the money flows. The machinery is bigger, faster, loaded with computers, and more expensive. The stakes are higher with worldwide competition. The challenges are more nuanced with commodity traders, big corporations, various businesses competing for transportation, and a shrinking generation of new farmers. Add to all that, the ever-present force of Mother Nature. Like every farmer, the Johnson’s are effected by the changing dynamic of modern day farming. The choices are to adapt or fade away.
American Harvest is about more than farming. It’s about community, relationships, and the marriage of old wisdom and new technologies. It’s about exploration, growth, hard work, and the intricate system that ultimately feeds the world. Experience the extraordinary life of farming
through the eyes of Lance and Shawn Johnson, this season on American Harvest.
Inspired To Ride follows closely the journey of a handful of 45 cyclists as they prepare, compete and experience what riding 300 miles a day feels like with only a few hours sleep.Their mission is to cover 4,233 miles in one enormous stage race, traversing through ten states in a transcontinental adventure of epic proportions – the inaugural Trans Am Bike Race, following the famed TransAmerica Trail. They will rely solely on their fitness, meticulously chosen gear and mental fortitude to get them to the finish. And to make it even more interesting, they’ll be self-supported – no crew, no follow vehicles and no prize money waiting at the end.
Casting for Recovery – World Fishing Journal on World Fishing Network
See the entire segment here.
This segment was filmed in October with WFN’s Mariko Izumi on the Bitterroot River in Montana to highlight Casting for Recovery’s Second Annual Cast One for Hope fundraising event.
BOLT is a scripted drama about discovering the person you become when you follow your passions. Written and directed by Perry Lang, BOLT stars Michael Cassidy as Wyn Bolt, a tech genius who drastically alters his life following the death of his father.
Lydia Dishman catches up with Hunter Weeks during the WALTER: Lessons from the World’s Oldest People theatrical tour for Fast Company’s Most Creative People.
One Filmmaker’s Life Lessons from Really, Really, Really Old People
An interview award-winning filmmaker Hunter Weeks and Josh Caldwell did with CNN shortly after releasing 10 MPH.
Hunter Weeks and his 10MPH partner Josh Caldwell were part of the pioneering indie film bunch who took distribution matters into their own hands.
ITVS Digital Initiative: Report from the Field
Case Study: Hunter Weeks and Josh Caldwell: 10 MPH
Independent Television Service, Inc. talks to the 10 MPH filmmakers about their distribution strategy.
Jeff Sabatini’s article With Halfway to Go, They’re Still Standing for The New York Times, reports on the 10 MPH film crew as they journey across America.
NPR’s Liane Hansen talks with Hunter Weeks about 10 MPH.
Hunter Weeks joined filmmakers Sebastian Diaz and Rodrigo Reyes for the April 1st edition of POV #docchat. This week’s discussion is Balancing Your Day Job And Your Documentary. The conversation was pretty full but the basics have been pulled together in Storify. You can navigate deeper into the Twitterverse once you get in there.
POV #DOCCHAT
Podcast: Interview with WALTER Director Hunter Weeks
by Andrew N. Shearer
This week’s Cinema File Podcast is an interview with director Hunter Weeks, discussing crowd funding, digital distribution, and how making a movie about the world’s oldest people changed him. Listen here.
The Old Man Bitter Girl Podcast. Episode 160: February 17, 2014
IN THIS EPISODE :: We sit down with Filmaker Hunter Weeks to talk about the film WALTER coming to the Victoria Texas Independent Film Festival. Listen here.
Walter to Kick off VTX Film Festival
An encounter with the world’s oldest man, Walter Breuning, prompts filmmaker, Hunter Weeks to travel around the world interviewing supercentenarians for life advice. His movie, “Walter” debuts opening night at the Victoria Film Fest on April 3. Full Story
Talking Where the Yellowstone Goes with director Hunter Weeks
The Yellowstone River is the longest undammed river in the lower 48 states, and travelling on the river is a beautiful experience. Hunter Weeks captured that beauty in his film Where the Yellowstone Goes, which shows at Brewvies on April 4 at 7:30 p.m.
The director will be there to answer any of your questions, and if you ask he’ll probably even give you an autograph. But first, he answered some of ours. Check out our Q&A with Weeks below. Full Story
Audio Case Study: Hunter Weeks & 10 MPH
Hunter fills us in on what he did to get the word about his film, the hurdles he faced and overcame, how he went about learning the process of how distribution really works and how he made and continues to make his self-distribution efforts a big success. Hunter even tells us how our very own Self-Distribution Starter Kit inspired him in the process. Full Story
Great Falls Tribune columnist Richard Ecke chatted with Hunter Weeks for an edition of Spray of the Falls, Ecke’s weekly update.
DailyCandy.com editor DeAnna Janes put together a list of Little Indies that Should and featured WALTER in films that she thinks should be backed on Kickstarter.
WALTER producer, Sarah E. Hall, sat down with her hometown newspaper to talk about the latest Hunter Weeks documentary.
