Heartland Heritage
An elderly farmer walking a field at golden hour

Farm & business legacies

The land remembers.
So should the video.

The family farm, the hardware store, the machine shop - when the last person who built it is gone, so is the knowing. We film the operation while it still runs: the elder walking the furrow line, the story of the '88 flood, the reason the gate hangs crooked. A documentary your family - and the local historical society - will keep.

  • ◆Seasons filmed: planting, harvest, the work between
  • ◆Interviews in the cab, at the counter, on the porch
  • ◆The flood, the fire, the good years - on the record
  • ◆Historical-society-grade archive copies
Talk to the outfit See rates

When the knowing leaves

Nobody wrote down why the gate hangs crooked

Every operation has a thousand decisions in it that exist nowhere but in the founder's head: which field drains wrong, which customer goes back to 1974, why the third bay faces east. When the last person who knows is gone, a library burns that nobody mapped.

We film the operation as an operation - a season, a counter, a workshop - with the elders walking us through it. The result is not a tribute; it is a record. The family keeps it, and the county historical society gets a copy, if you want them to have one.

Season days

La pratique, en vrai

The cab interview, mile two

Where the stories actually get told.

The film crew that shows up at harvest asking for interviews gets sent home, and rightly. We ride along. The interviews happen in the cab, at the counter, over coffee at the kitchen table - wherever the operation already tells its own stories.

The outfit

Filmmakers who know which end of the combine

Dale Kristofferson

Third-generation Kansas farmer who sold his acres to film other people's. Knows the questions that matter in a cab and when to stay quiet through a long feed truck.

Jolene Weaver

Handles the season schedule - planting, harvest, and the hard deadlines weather sets. Books interview days around field work, never through it.

Ray Mabry

Films machinery like machinery deserves. Twenty years of agricultural photography; patient with mud, early for sunrise, good company in a truck.

Fern Delgado

Cuts the operation films with the pace of the work itself. Restores the VHS from the '89 centennial and the 8mm from before that.

Rates

Four levels of the record

Most booked

Start here

The Operator Interview

Two interview days on the operation, the stories, the maps of who farmed what. A 25-minute film with photos and archival scans.

  • Seasonal scheduling around field work
  • Archive restoration included
  • Historical-society copies where wanted

$3,200 film

The Season Film

$7,500film

Most booked

Filming across one full season - planting through harvest, or the retail year. 45-minute film with the operation documented in working order.

The Legacy Film

$11,800film

The whole operation

A full year, the family and the crew interviewed, the archive restored, the buildings and land filmed in all four seasons. 60-minute film plus a chaptered archive.

The Centennial Collection

$16,000collection

Hundred years on the land

For centennial farms and businesses: two years of production, every generation, the community, the parade. Master film, chaptered archive, and copies for the family and the historical society.

All prices USD. Travel in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri included; beyond, at cost. Weather moves schedules, never deadlines - we build the calendar with the operation, not against it.

The process

From first call to premiere

01

The kitchen meeting

Dale and Jolene come to the kitchen table: the history, the seasons, the people, and the hard dates. The film takes shape around the operation's calendar.

02

The interviews

In the cab, at the counter, on the porch - wherever the stories actually get told. The elder leads the walk; we follow with cameras.

03

The season

Ray films the work as it happens. Planting, harvest, the counter at Christmas, the calving at 3am if that is the operation.

04

The archive & film

Fern restores the reels and VHS, then cuts the film at the pace of the work. Family review, then delivery - plus the historical-society copy if wanted.

Client stories

What our clients say

« "Dad walked the west field for the camera and explained the drainage like he was teaching a hired man. He passed eighteen months later. The film is the only reason anyone else knows the drainage." »

Kyle J.
son, 52 (Iowa)

« "Third-generation hardware store, ninety-one years, and Grandpa told the flood story on camera with the water marks still on the back door. The historical society asked for a copy. Grandpa approved that himself, which tells you everything." »

Maria T.
granddaughter, 38 (Missouri)

« "We booked the Season Film thinking it was for us. It turns out it was mostly for the grandkids who never saw the dairy run. They watch it at Thanksgiving like other families watch football." »

The Sorensens
dairy operation, Nebraska

// Before you book //

Frequently asked questions

Around the work, always. Jolene builds the calendar with you: interview days in the slow weeks, filming at planting and harvest without slowing either down.
Dale's whole method is the cab and the porch, not the studio. Most founders forget the camera the moment the story gets going. The ones who never do? We film their hands and their operation instead, and it works.
8mm and 16mm film, VHS and Betamax, slides, negative sleeves, the ledger books, the aerial photos from the county office. Fern restores all of it; the ledger close-ups are always a highlight.
Yes, and they should be - the men and women who kept it running are part of the record. Their interviews are included in the Season Film and up.
Constantly: hardware stores, machine shops, banks, restaurants. If it has generations in it, it has a film in it.
Your family does, in writing, with full-resolution archive copies. We keep masters 12 months for safety, then surrender or archive at your instruction.

Contact

Tell us about the operation

The place, the generations, and the season that matters most. Dale and Jolene will come to the kitchen table.

TEL (816) 555-0173
Hours Mon-Fri 8:30am-5pm CT

メール [email protected]