The Rural Route Film Festival was created to highlight works that deal with rural people and places. While the term “rural” is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as: 1) Of or relating to the country: RUSTIC 2) Of or relating to people who live in the country 3) Of or relating to farming: AGRICULTURAL, the creators of Rural Route Film Festival leave it up to you, the film and video artists, to explain your own definition of “rural.” Whether it be a documentary about an organic turnip farm in West Virginia, a fictional backpacking drama set in Peru, or a personal/experimental work about life in a small town in Wisconsin, we want to see and hear what you have to say. Works that include alternative country, country western, and folk music are encouraged, as are those that play loud rock in cornfields.
Since 2002, the Rural Route Film Festival has been centered in New York City, where both founders (originally from Iowa) met working in the film industry. While having a rural festival in one of the world’s largest cities is an oxymoron, the irony proved to work, bringing in submissions from all around the world and attracting city slickers who were curious about the country, and country folk who had moved to the city but wanted to reconnect with home. Rural Route has been effective in creating a like-minded community of filmmakers. Unlike most festivals that operate under a general theme of ‘independent film,’ Rural Route’s specific focus on rurality has allowed us to place similar artists together whose work might otherwise be ignored or lost within the programming of broader based festivals. Filmmakers under the Rural Route umbrella are able to network through each other, discuss/critique one another’s work, and crew on one another’s projects. Many filmmakers have premiered their work at Rural Route and gone on to win awards through festival runs domestically and abroad, have their work screened through television outlets such as IFC and PBS, and have their films picked-up by independent distributors.
Who we are
Alan Webber (Festival Director) was born and raised in Elkader, IA, 20 mi. west of the Mississippi River and the historic Wisconsin pioneer village of Prarie du Chien. He has been making films and videos since age 16, and obtained his M.A. in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research while apprenticing under director Hal Hartley. Alan’s writer/director/editor credits include: Adventures of the Brooklyn Hipster Superhero, Day is Done, and Hawkeye Fever, along w/narrative music videos for rock bands Japanther, Federation-X, and The Silver Jews, and Akron/Family (Dear, Deer). He has completed a feature-length script about teenage angst in rural Iowa, and through 2008-2009 traveled around the world screening the RRFF while taking photos, video, and blogging, which you can see some of @ http://www.ruralroutenomad.tumblr.com.
Eugene Lehnert (Post-Production Director) was born on Long Island but grew up in the small upstate New York town of Sharon Springs (pop. 500). The town now hosts the reality tv show The Fabulous Beekman Boys on Planet Green. Eugene now lives in New York City as a filmmaker and editor. He’s made such films asBlood Ties, Armageddon for Andy and most recently the web series The Outer Boroughs.
Rodney Linderbaum (aka “Dog”) is Rural Route’s Communications Director. Rodney lives in Iowa City, IA, where he helped design the world’s largest wooden nickel, and serves as an active camper and outdoorsman.
Pam Eng is one of Rural Route’s Key Social Network Planners/Publicist. She was born and raised in Queens, NY, having survived such periods as the “Warriors”-like subway ride to school every day in the 80s to the influx of stiletto-heeled Carrie wanna-bes flooding the Meatpacking District in the early 2000s. Still she would have it no other way living in this beloved city and gives a big thumbs up to this recent trend of urban farming. A graduate of Barnard College and Duke University, Pam has worked for one Internet start-up or another since the late 90s, seen the boom and bust and now happily works in marketing at Google.
Joey Azoulai is Rural Route’s Production/Outreach Planning Mgr. A graduate of Pratt Institute and writer/video producer whose credits include the web series, “Adam on the Road” and “Interns.” In addition to his work in entertainment, Joey cares for a 4×4′ plot in the Flatbush Community Garden, volunteers at the Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm and roasts organic coffee beans. As a Brooklyn native, Joey loves the big city but misses the stars and often fantasizes of a rural life.
Nerissa Campbell is Website Designer for the RRFF. She is a musician living in NYC, originally from the official ‘most-isolated-capital-city-in-the-world’, Perth, Western Australia. She sings jazz songs, but can also be found playing in metal bands and balinese gamelan. Her website can be found here.
Lucas Van Engen is new to the Rural Route crew this year, helping out with Neighborhood Special Ops in Astoria, and watching films for the Submission Review Committee. He has acted in and produced theatrical shows in New York including Relativity, and has received Best Actor nominations for his regional performances. In TV, he’s appeared on Law and Order, Gossip Girl, and All my Children. He also writes and edits video – currently for Thug Passion the Series, available on Facebook. Last summer, Lucas drove a riding lawnmower from Santa Monica to New York City for a Craftsman and Sears campaign. He stopped at 27 Sears Hometown stores along the way, gathered on-camera interviews with interesting people he met along the way, took a butt-load of video footage and photographs chronicalling his journey and that of his support crew (Matt and Cody), and kept a daily blog that you can see at www.CraftsmanAcrossAmerica.posterous.com.
Severine von Tscharner Fleming raises rabbits, herbs and rare fruit in the Hudson Valley. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.S. in Conservation & AgroEcology, where she also founded SAFE (The Society for Agriculture & Food Ecology). She is currently producing a documentary about America’s young farming community, called The Greenhorns. She also works as a consultant for Slow Food, and advises Rural Route on agricultural issues and co-organization of an extensive new wave agri-film festival to educate the nation.
