Three short documentaries produced in a Rural Humanities Seminar, taught by PMA Associate Professor Austin Bunn, are headed to film festivals this fall. The Mellon Foundation-funded course, “Documenting Rural Lives” (SHUM 4800/PMA 4450), focused on regional and rural stories from Central New York and the Finger Lakes. Ten graduate and undergraduate students were given $2,000 each to produce original documentaries and collaborate with professional cinematographers. 

Bunn’s short documentary film, “Farm Grrrl Folk Punk,” has been selected for the Sound Unseen: Music + Film Festival. The film was created and edited by Bunn and produced by students in the class with cinematography by Rafael Bitanga ’23. The film festival will take place in Minneapolis and Rochester, Minn., and Austin, Texas in November and December.

The film follows Motherwort, a fierce four-piece band based in Ithaca, with a unique blend of folk-inspired punk energy. "Motherwort is a band of characters — female farmers, house-flippers, and herbalists — and I knew they would make a compelling short for a subject documentary,” said Bunn. “I decided to experiment with a collaborative production; the students in ‘Documenting Rural Lives’ ran the shoots with the band members, developed the questions, conducted the interviews and gathered heaps of b-roll. We used a professional videographer and Cornell grad Rafael Bitanga '23 as our primary cinematographer.”

Read the full story on The College of Arts & Sciences website.