This Friday, March 27, a different sort of experimental prompt video event will showcase a collection of work made for Homegrown Stories.
In the early days of RVA Magazine, that space existed through Project Resolution, a monthly prompt-based series that gave new filmmakers a place to show work and get real critique. Around 2005, it was one of the only forums in the city, outside of the James River Film Festival, arriving just as VCU was beginning to build its film program and a local scene was starting to take shape.
That same spirit shows up in Homegrown Stories.
Much of the work created as part of Homegrown Stories takes the form of moving poetry. The project embraces a prompt-based approach commonly used in writing exercises, with elements of chance, influenced by the I Ching, shaping collaborative video pieces. Whether inspired by actual poems or the prompt itself, the resulting work reflects a relationship between process and chance.
This retrospective screening, highlighting 13 years of Homegrown Stories, is a 68-minute program featuring over 30 different experimental films created by 20 different film, video, and sound artists, hosted at Studio Two Three with free admission. Project co-founder LeAnn Erickson, along with collaborators Sonali Gulati and Jim Havercamp, will be in attendance for a Q&A.
We were able to ask co-founder LeAnn Erickson about the poetry of film and why we need to watch Homegrown experimental films together.
TRav: What is the mission and origin for Homegrown Stories?
LeAnn Erickson: Homegrown Stories began in 2013 as a video dialogue between myself and project co-founder Sandy Dyas. I was burned out from producing and directing a documentary project that took seven years to complete. Sandy suggested that we start a one-shot project, “no stakes, just for fun.” The project was just the two of us for the first two years, but we were loving what was happening and we decided to expand the project to include other artists, and the project grew each year. Homegrown Stories is now in its 13th year.
TRav: Since starting in 2013, which feels so long gone now, what is the importance of “Homegrown” or handmade films in this new media era when corporate mergers are more bloated than at the initiative’s beginning and AI-prompted content is being made and consumed thoughtlessly?
LE: Homegrown Stories seems to offer participating artists a fresh perspective on filmmaking. The structured prompts help free the mind to creative possibilities, and our artists love that, as do we.
TRav: Watching short films in a curated collection is quite different than consuming short-form content on an app endlessly. Can you speak to what makes going to film festivals and short film screenings like this in person special and essential?
LE: Internet content often can feel like you’re being dumped on, everything including the kitchen sink. The beauty of a curated experience like a film festival or a retrospective like HGS is that the program is an unfolding experience. Each piece speaks to the next, creating a cumulative impression and experience. That is why these types of programs are needed.
TRav: What do you find are the poetic qualities of movies and microcinema? The Cocteaus, Akermans, Malicks, and others come to be known as poetic, or poets of mainstream and niche art film. What do you see in these short prompted films that are akin to poetry?
LE: Mainstream fiction and non-fiction films usually employ a linear narrative constructed as a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. In good narrative films, the audience feels emotions and comes to a deeper understanding of themes working in the subtext of a film.
Experimental film and video work uses forms closer to written poetry, depending on abstract imagery, rhythm, and sound to create an emotional or intellectual response to a concept. This type of work, often classified as visual poetry, is as old as the invention of cinema, and predates the classic narrative film we all recognize.
TRav: Do you have highlight notes to these 30-some films to suggest the range of styles and work included in this screening?
LE: This is an amazing, beautiful lineup of work produced by international sound and image artists. I feel this screening is a unique opportunity to see moving poetry of this quality. I do have a program that will be handed out to audience members that contextualizes the project while identifying the participating artists.
TRav: Who will be part of this screening’s Q&A?
LE: I’ll be joined by two of the project filmmakers, Sonali Gulati, an award-winning filmmaker and Richmond-based (VCU Photo/Film) professor, and Jim Havercamp, a North Carolina-based experimental filmmaker and microcinema founder.
TRav: Where can people find more information about Homegrown Stories?
LE: People can learn about the project and filmmakers, as well as access 13 years of videos, at homegrownstories.com
TRav: Is it possible for filmmakers to participate in future programs?
LE: Interested filmmakers can contact me at leleavesaol@gmail.com
Main image is a screenshot from Fuze and Grapefruit Parts by Sandy Dyas and LeAnn Erickson
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