Production update

August was spent in research and travelling to collect b-roll for the Dakota project. I met with some wonderful folks at the Minnesota Historical Society and talked to several people who will be key interviews down the road.

Kerry Sandler joined the road trip for the first week. We went from the white rock of Saint Paul to Acton to Lac qui Parle to Upper Sioux Agency site to Wood Lake and Birch Coulee Battlefield to Lower Sioux Agency site. We were blessed with good weather and even a beautiful full moon.

I then travelled down to St Peter for a couple of interviews. Final footage for this burst of photography was at Fort Snelling with Timya Owen and Jennie Reedquist assisting on production. We went to the State Park area as well to visit the site of the internment camp. It's difficult to stand on that small piece of land, surrounded by the beauty of the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers and realize 1600 people somehow were crammed behind a fence on this spot.

The rest of the vacation was spent trying to organize the story a bit more in my head. It was a truly productive time! There's a lot of work to do. It'll take years to get the project to completion but we're feeling good about the progress so far!

In other news: Head on over to Colin Devlin's "Democracy of One" site. In the video section you'll find some of the footage we shot in Montreal amidst the epk (making of) but more than that you'll find some fantastic music!

There hasn't been a lot of down time lately but I have enjoyed Anton Corbijn's directorial feature narrative debut "Control" which brought back a love of Joy Division and is making me want to dive back into the Intellectual Beauty story. As the weather shifts to fall I have hope that I will be able to make some time for that!