Unearthed Films now streaming

Last year, Indiana Humanities had the tremendous opportunity to travel across the state and screen our latest batch of short films during the Unearthed Film Tour. The tour journeyed to five Hoosier cities to share cinematic stories about our connections to the land and converse with the creators of these projects about their experiences behind the camera.

Funded as part of the Unearthed initiative, Indiana Humanities’ multiyear environmental theme, these short films documented how Hoosiers understand the natural world, including lakeshores and public parks as well as fields and farmland. Over the last few months, Indiana Humanities has been thrilled to participate in conversations about what it means for each of us to care for the land and explore our surrounding environments.

Now that the tour itself has ended, the time has come to share these projects with a wider audience via Indiana Humanities’ website and YouTube channel. If you’re new to this film series, here are the stories you can now screen online:

• Worm Land, by filmmakers Will Wertz and Kolton Dallas, documents the work of a New Paris, Indiana, farmer as he champions sustainable agriculture and reflects on a life spent working the land.
• Symbiotic Hum, by Jessica Dunn and Landon Caldwell, is an animated project—an audiovisual poem that explores the role of native plants in the natural world.
• Finding Our Sense of Place in Madison County, by James Moriarty, looks at the unique history of Chesterfield, Indiana, and the spiritual, cultural, and historical significance of the location.
• Grown in Gary, by Sam Love and Raymar Brunson, considers an urban garden in the eponymous northwest Indiana city and the economic and educational opportunities that it unlocks for the community.
• Launching the Lagoon, by Jessica Renslow and Gretchen Sipp, celebrates the community efforts taking place in Gary’s Marquette Park to promote universal design and accessibility.
• Regenerate Indiana comes from the Moreau College Initiative and details the experience of incarcerated college students at the Westville Correctional Facility and what their work within the facility’s garden has meant to them.
• Finally, coming soon to our channels will be Root Black by Manon Voice and Deonna Weatherly, a project that poetically explores the complex past and present relationships between Black communities and the natural world.

Each of the films showcased in the Unearthed Film Project demonstrates the storytelling skills existing within Indiana’s filmmaking community, while sharing meaningful stories about Indiana’s beautiful natural places and Hoosiers’ connections to the land. Indiana Humanities is grateful to the filmmakers and film subjects for taking their stories to audiences in all corners of the state.

If you haven’t already, we encourage you to spend some time online with each of these projects. Discover how Hoosiers across the state relate to the land. Consider our state’s environmental history. Let yourself be inspired by your neighbors. And most important, enjoy the films!