Emmy-Nominated Documentary

Holy Poop! Amber’s Halfway Home got nominated for an Emmy! I can’t tell you how much this means to Farnival Films. When we first started this project, I asked Mason and Pidge on multiple occasions, what the f**k am I doing? I’m a storyteller not a filmmaker. Sure, I had produced shorts in the past, but never anything this big. This important. Or this cheap, so cheap we packed our lunches on shoot days. And the stakes were high. Our subject matter was about saving lives. Saving DOGS’ lives.

But, after meeting Amber, I knew two things. One, her story needed to be heard. And two, Amber was so charismatic that all I had to do was NOT screw it up. So, the three of us, Mason, Pidge, and I, armed ourselves with cell phones, gimbals, used audio equipment, and every charger we owned. We jumped in Amber’s van and recorded her saving dog after dog. Nineteen in 10 hours and 216 miles to be exact.

We recorded everything. We weren’t thinking about how it was framed or lit, we just shot. It’s hard to think about those things when a sixty-pound feral dog is growling at your heels. Or when dozens of dogs on death row are screaming for help from inside a dark concrete room. We shot stuff that we will never share because it’s too difficult to see. The only time we stopped recording was when the vet Dr. Neal asked us to turn off the cameras. We did, and he talked about Amber’s selflessness with tears rolling down his face.

That’s the other thing about making Amber’s Halfway Home. For animal lovers, like all of us at Farnival Films, it was emotionally exhausting. It took weeks to process everything we saw. Actually, I’m still processing it a year later. And Amber does rescue work on a daily basis. She sees dogs who are beat, shot, starved, and abandoned. She sees sick dogs living in deplorable conditions at government-funded shelters.

Yet, every day Amber gets back in her van, travels hundreds of miles across rural Tennessee, and saves more dogs. She once told me it’s all about having thick skin and a soft heart. Without a doubt, Amber’s a special person. A warrior on the front lines of the animal overpopulation problem who is actually making a difference in her Southern community.

This Emmy nomination makes all of us at Farnival Films feel like we might have done justice to her story. A win would cement that. Let’s do this.

Amber’s Building: Mixing Creativity and Social Activism

Several years ago, I started mixing social activism into my creative work. First, I blogged about fostering dogs in the rural South, then I wrote a book called Catching Dawn about what happens to strays in my neighborhood. Both were rewarding for different reasons, but I never saw any substantial change. Until now. Until we produced a documentary about Amber Reynolds, a warrior battling on the front lines of the animal overpopulation problem in Western TN .

Let me explain. While we were filming Amber’s Halfway Home, Amber kept talking about a building. She wanted to build a facility to house all the homeless dogs she rescues. She talked about this structure like it was a dream, a dream that might never happen. Amber’s Halfway Home Animal Rescue exists solely on donations. And although she tries to save funds for her building, the hard reality is that most of the money goes to food and medical bills. Amber’s outstanding balance at the vet is rarely in the black. Since I’ve known her, it’s never been below several thousand.

Right now, some of the 80-plus dogs in her care stay in her family’s home or in her husband’s garage, which she confiscated a year ago. But, some stay outside in pens with dirt floors. She does everything possible to make them comfortable. They all have buckets of water and houses for shelter. She fills their cages with wood chips but they need to be changed daily. If it rains or snows, Amber covers the cages with tarps. But sometimes, when it’s windy, the tarps blow away.

This past winter, while we were editing the documentary, we had a week or two of ice and snow. I often thought about those dogs and about Amber. I thought about her cleaning wood chips and waste. Breaking up frozen water bowls. I knew it would take hours for her to clean out all the cages. I also knew she started working before the sun rose.

I told my creative accomplice Pidge that if this film raises enough money for Amber’s building, then I would drop the mic. Is it cool that film festivals are selecting our documentary? Yes. Would it be even cooler if we won some recognition? Hell yes. But a building for Amber will save thousands of dogs. It will also make Amber’s job easier. For me, that’s as meaningful as any award.

Fast-forward nine months: in August, we had our first private screening of Amber’s Halfway Home. When the documentary ended, some incredible person walked up to Amber and handed her a check. A check that covers 80% of the cost of that building she’s been dreaming about. When Amber showed me the check, she was shaking. She was stunned. I was stunned. We cried a little. We hugged a lot.

During the next week, I was on cloud nine. For the first time, at that screening, I witnessed what could happen by mixing creativity and social activism. I saw how stories can wield power, the power to change the world. Maybe only a small piece of it, but a piece nonetheless, and that gives me goose bumps.

And one more: The Reading Film Fest

Amber’s Halfway Home got into another festival, and this one is above the Mason-Dixon Line. The Reading Film Fest. They had submissions from eleven different countries, and we got selected. A story shot right here in rural TN. Wooo hooooo!

If this film reaches enough people, we might have a chance of starting a conversation about how much we need legislation that protects our homeless animals, the ones in shelters and on the streets. Scroll down to find out why animal-protection laws are so necessary in the United States, particularly in the South.

“We can start by eliminating any law in any state that defines animals as property, meaning without feelings. In the US, your dog has as much protection (and as many rights) as a couch.” -Farnival Films

Amber’s Halfway Home: Best Picture?

So excited to announce that Amber’s Halfway Home has been accepted into three film festivals: Knoxville Film Festival, Full Bloom Film Festival, and the Animalis Fabula Film Festival. And even more excited to announce our documentary is up for best picture in the last one I listed.

Film Festivals and Amber’s Halfway Home

Well…this put a wrench in the works. We found out that we can’t digitally release our film on Sept. 7th because of festival rules. As y’all know, this is our first time producing a documentary as well as entering it in festivals, so excuse us newbies. But, we aren’t allowed to release it until it airs at the festival. This means that the Sept. 7th digital premiere has to be delayed. But, we are hoping to organize a few private screenings on Zoom. If you are interested in participating, email me at thefarnival@gmail.com. I’ll be updating this blog with all the necessary info for the private screenings as well as the festivals as soon as I have it. I apologize.

Amber’s Halfway Home: It’s Done.

“We can start by eliminating any law in any state that defines animals as property, meaning without feelings. In the US, your dog has as much protection (and as many rights) as a couch.”

Grab the popcorn, people. September 7th is the official release date of Amber’s Halfway Home. Recently, Heather of @leyla_and_luke asked how I feel now that the documentary is done. I said relieved. But, I’m also excited - for several different reasons.

I’m excited because pretty soon you’ll meet Amber Reynolds. She’s such a badass. What she accomplishes every day of the week is heroic, the number of dogs she saves staggering. Amber shoulders the work that our federal government should be doing. Without her, thousands of dogs would die on the streets or in the pounds.

I’m also excited because I’m hoping this film kickstarts a conversation about our country’s animal-protection laws or lack thereof. When people ask me what needs to be done, I give one answer. We need federal laws that protect our nation’s animals, and we need to enforce those laws. We can start by eliminating any law in any state that defines animals as property, meaning without feelings. Hell, in my neighborhood, the local government controls our overpopulation problem with shotguns. And it’s legal. I wrote a whole book - Catching Dawn - about it.

How is it possible that such brutal and archaic methods still exist in the Unites States? Could it be because our country gives animals the same status as furniture or credit cards? Think about that for one long second. In the US, your dog has as much protection (and as many rights) as a couch.

Federal laws that protect our nation’s animals are long overdue. And there’s no better time to start that conversation than right now. Why? Because a rescue dog named Major lives in the White House. If there’s ever a time for finding sympathetic ears in powerful places, it’s now.

Lastly, I’m excited about releasing Amber’s Halfway Home because it defends the South, a region that suffers from more negative stereotyping than any other. Look, I’ll be the first person to admit that my home is woefully behind in controlling our animal overpopulation problem - as well as in a few other areas (like affordable high-speed internet). But, the entire South can’t be discounted or written off in stereotypes. Because people like Amber Reynolds are out there on the front lines battling day after day, and she’s as Southern as grits and Honeybuns.

Amber deserves to be recognized as a force of nature who is making a positive change in her community. She deserves our respect. Above everything else, this film celebrates Amber’s life and her work. And I feel honored that Farnival Films gets to tell her story.

Amber’s Halfway Home. Available this summer on Farnival Films youtube channel.

Over 1.5 million animals will be euthanized in shelters across the United States this year.

We can change that.

Speak up and spread the word.

“That’s what’s wrong with this world. A lot of people don’t speak up, but that’s where the change is

going to come from, if we speak up.” –Amber Reynolds

#speakup #ambershalfwayhome

Coming soon: Amber’s Halfway Home

Edit Session Numero: Who the Hell Knows?

I’m sorry I haven’t been updating. But, I warned you. When I start working on a project, it consumes me. And Amber’s Halfway Home swallowed me whole. Creating a documentary is an enormous amount of work. Besides the heavy lifting of writing a screenplay and shooting the footage, there’s the slog of logging audio and video, researching, picking out font style, obsessing over a dissolve versus a cut or one song over another.

Every single detail takes hours of work. But every single minute of that work has been rewarding. I believe this documentary has the potential to make a change. At the very least, it has the potential to shine a 1,000-watt spotlight on the overpopulation problem in Southern shelters. Ultimately, we need federal laws that protect animals in government-funded facilities, and a way to enforce those laws. If this film starts that discussion, then I’ll drop the mic. I’ll also drop the mic if Miller, a black slobbery galoot, gets adopted. More on Miller soon.

The hardest part of any creative project is deciding when it’s finished. And I’m not easy on my work. But, I’m starting to feel that calm vibe that comes with finishing a story, especially a story worth telling. I’m proud of this documentary. And I’m even prouder of Farnival Films, a very small, very independent group that consists of three people, Mason, Pidge, and me. We worked our tails off on this film, and I can’t wait to share it with y’all. So get ready ‘cause the countdown is on.

Coming this Summer: Amber’s Halfway Home