Student Filmmaking Projects
Feature Close-ups on Raising Beef

by Kindra Gordon for Angus Productions Inc.

DENVER, Colo. (Feb. 4, 2011) — Attendees to the Cattle Industry Convention and National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) Trade Show had a firsthand opportunity to see three student-created documentaries that feature real beef producers and how beef gets from pasture to plate. The film series, which is titled Close-Up on Raising Beef, was produced with funding from the Beef Checkoff Program in the aim of bridging the gap between the 300 million people who live in the United States and the 1% of people who raise food in the country.

 

The three films were screened Feb. 2-4 in the NCBA Trade Show area during the Cattle Industry Convention. They included:

• Green Pastures, by Kevin Smith, a filmmaker and graduate student at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Mich.;
  
  
• A Film By Katie Griffith, by Katie Griffith, a recent graduate of West Virginia University in Morgantown, W.Va.; and
  
  
• The Care Package: Animal Welfare in the West, by Michael DeTerra, a senior at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash.

Each student filmmaker was granted $3,000 to make their documentary. None of the student filmmakers who received grants for the project were raised with close ties to agriculture or the food industry, so viewers explore raising beef right along with the students during the documentaries. To give viewers a holistic and objective view, the student filmmakers interviewed more than 30 beef farmers, ranchers and experts in 10 different states between May and August 2010.

“I became interested in learning more about beef production after I took some environmental science classes that touched on the cattle industry,” said filmmaker Michael DeTerra. His film focuses on the methods cattlemen use to ensure optimal care and handling for their animals and features animal behavioral scientist Temple Grandin.

 “Working with the families was an incredibly rewarding experience. Before I met them, I’d never realized the amount of care and attention that goes into farming and ranching. It's really quite amazing,” said Smith of his filmmaking focus on the beef industry.

The three films were initially released in honor of National Farm-City Week, Nov. 19-25, 2010. The full videos run about 20 minutes each and are available for viewing on ExploreBeef.org or visit the Explore Beef YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/BeefPasturetoPlate to view short cuts of each film.