Shop Local

Gary introduced Ashley Matt, who grew up in Midland before going to College for Journalism and Public Relations.  She's worked as an entertainment photo editor in Los Angeles, Miami and Toronto and as a trascriber in Burbank.  She has assisted at the Toronto and Sundance festivals and as a production assistant on location in Athens.  She has also written miniseries and screeenplays.  With he was Nate Lacroix who is a graduate of Sheridan's film school and who has directed and edited short films and doucmentaries and has done music and special effects as well.  He filmed and edited the Acts of Kindness video.  They both have come back to Midland with their families and are embarked on a documentary project.

Ashley and Nate spoke (and showed slides and video) about their project - a full 90 minute documentary about the merits - economic, health, community awareness - of shopping locally.The movie, for which they already have a trailer, will be produced locally, will include interviews with business people, producers and shopper and will follow Nate and Ashley as they live locally.  It will be debuted at the MCC and then will be distributed internationally.

They have a budget of $50,000.00 for costs, living expenses and some staff salaries.  They have raised 10 so far.  They are well into pre-production which includes script development, research, recruiting participants and doing promotion and fund raising.  March through August they plan to shoot, market and do more fundraising.  For the month of July they will film themselves doing a 30 day live local challenge.  Ashley does the interviews, Nate does the filming and they both act as roadies.

The fall will be for post-production while they review footage and edit the final film which is scheduled to be shown at a gala screening on Dec. 7.  Then they will submit it to film festivals in the hopes of both making some money and of bringing Huronia to the world. 

For comparison, they mentioned that Supersize Me cost $65,000.00 and grossed 30 million.  Though they face budget challenges they think some resourcefulness and the economies of digital make the production possible and the increasing popularity of documentaries and documentary festivals make success likely.  They want to work to create change and inspire people while connecting the community, supporting local businesses and promoting the unique economy we have here.

Ron thanked the two for their presentation and their commitment to the community.