Sunshine Community Garden This short documentary chronicles the regular practices and annual plant sale of a community garden in Austin, TX.  It was created by the spring intern class of Elephant Productions.  Enjoy!

This short documentary chronicles the regular practices and annual plant sale of the Sunshine Community Garden in Austin, Texas.

Unfortunately, the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association specified that I can only use the footage I captured at the San Antonio Rodeo for television. In other words, I can’t stream video of Justin competing in the rodeo from our website. I’m sorry if you didn’t catch this episode on the tube. I personally like the story much better with the additional three minutes. But sometimes a producer has to play by the rules. I present to you an abridged cut of the Justin Maass story.

There are two cows in a paddock eating grass. One turns to the other and says, “Moooooo!” “Hey”, says the other…. “I was just about to say the same thing!”

I’ve been around a lot of cows lately-specifically, baby cows. And yes, they do actually make a “moo” sound… especially when they’re in a pin about to get roped! It was January right after the holidays and I finally received a call back from Pro Rodeo tie down roper Justin Maass. I admitted to him that I wasn’t exactly sure what roping involved…. but I wanted to learn and document him. I was surprised at how agreeable he seemed to the idea of being interviewed and followed by a camera crew. And then I asked him, “Why are you doing this?” He started to tell me how he decided to go into roping and I interrupted, “No, I mean why are you open to the idea of me filming you?” He stressed the importance to keep the rodeo’s fan base alive. He added that the younger generation isn’t as familiar with this event, and unless the rodeo “runs in the family”, it’s harder to target the general public. (more…)