• “Down to Earth” challenges viewers to buy local produce.
• Film will premier at Dec. 5 event at Muncie Fairgrounds.
• Students work as team to finish immersive learning project.
Three students are putting the finishing touches on a documentary about food on a global scale.
“We want students to be aware of where their food comes from and how it affects everything around it,” said Garret Brubaker, a junior telecommunications and video production major.
Brubaker, along with Dan Edwards and Sam Noble, work in the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry on post-production of the full-length documentary “Down to Earth: Small Farm Issues in a Big Farm World” — their end product from a semester of work with other students in one of Ball State’s immersive learning courses.
The main focus of their film is Kyle Becker, a local farmer from Mooreland, Ind., who uses sustainable farming — a practice that the group wants to bring more attention to.
The film also focuses on the importance of buying local food.
“You have to think as a global citizen and be aware of how your food choices have a huge ripple effect that you aren’t even aware of,” Edwards, a junior telecommunications major, said. “Say you’ve bought a steak at Wal-Mart. You’ve now supported a store that doesn’t have a amicable relationship with a local farmer, and you now have supported a system that doesn’t treat animals with any sort of care.”
The group said students should buy food at Muncie’s Farmers Market, which takes place from 9 a.m. until noon every third Saturday of the month at Minnetrista, to support local farmers and the community as a whole.
It’s all part of the film’s push to promote a more sustainable and healthy food culture.
“The quickest and biggest way you’re going to affect and drive change is putting money back into your community, back into your local farmers market,” Edwards said.
The film will play at the Dec. 5 showcase at the Muncie Fairgrounds and in January at Pruis Hall, but the group hopes the film will be accepted and shown at a local film festival.
“We feel our movie would be strong in a lot of the Midwestern film festivals that maybe focus on documentary films,” Edwards said. “The Heartland Film Festival is probably right up our film’s alley.”
The three have put in roughly 40 hours a week of work on the film for the past few months, but to them, the final product has been worth it.
“I came to college to get experience, and the coolest thing about this is we’re going to have this final product I can be proud of and has a real-world aspect that might change how someone views something,” Brubaker said.
Read More
Retired high school teacher holds presentation about history of Berlin Wall
By Emma Matlock / 6 hours agoTom Schwartz, a retired Bluffton High School Teacher, talks about the art on the Berlin Wall on April 15, 2024.
Fatal accident along McGalliard Road and Tillotson Avenue
By Staff Reports / 7 hours agoA police chase that began in neighboring Henry County the morning of April 18 ended in Muncie at the McGalliard Road and Tillotson Avenue intersection, according to a press release from the Muncie Police Department (MPD).
Songkran Festival – Thai New Year celebration
By Brooke Follrad / 7 hours agoThailand New Year takes place from April 13 through April 15.
