HOOSAC = Algonquin for “place of stones”

foodinmotion — Sat, 14 May 2011 12:28:09 +0000

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 poverty. 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 is due for completion in 2011. It is her first feature length film.

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PLACE OF STONES (formerly Food Matters: From the Ground Up) 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 with the help and support of numerous individuals and entities who have played a part in the film – whether on camera or in so many other important ways. Thanks to you all.