PLACE OF STONES

PLACE OF STONES is a documentary film portrait of a community building a local food system. The setting is the Northern Berkshires where two million tons of rock were carved out of the Hoosac Mountain range to build the Hoosac Tunnel. The area is lined on one side by the mountains of the Hoosac range and the other by the Taconics. The place name of “Hoosac,” from the Algonquin for “place of stones,” aptly graces so many of the geographic features here.

It can be a tough place. Textile, and other mills and businesses, have moved in and then out, generating cycles of boom or bust, relative prosperity or difficult times. Old rivalries between towns still percolate in undercurrents affecting the dynamics of the area and social relationships among its residents. Winter can be long, cold and hard – spring and summer short and glorious. It’s a relatively unspoiled place with Mount Greylock towering over the Hoosac Valley and pockets of farmland holding on in the face of increasing development pressures. It’s a ‘stone soup’ sort of place. You survive, you make do, but most importantly, you create from the ground that you stand on. You build from the ground up – because food matters.

Produced, directed, shot and edited by Sharon Wyrrick, PLACE OF STONES: Food in Motion will be screened at Images Cinema in Williamstown, MA in April 2012.  Sign up below to receive an update about this event.

Sharon considers the film to be a “community document.” Working with the goal of creating a film document reflecting the developments in local food and farming in her home community of the Northern Berkshires over the course of two years (2008 – 2010), she has chosen not to confine the film to a typical feature film length of one-two hours — but to give more air time to more of the players who have been working on growing a vibrant local food system. So, come and dig in and see your neighbors on the big screen – maybe even yourself. And, see what has changed in the two years since the footage was gathered. The event will run approximately four hours.

PLACE OF STONES: Food in Motion has been supported in part with funds from the Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, and made possible because of the goodwill, humor, and participation of numerous individuals and entities who have played a part in the film – whether on camera, off camera, or in so many other important ways.  Thanks to you all.