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Images of Hope

Media filmmaker Rich Hoffmann reaps what he sows—both in his craft and his daily life.

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At one point in the inspirational documentary Fridays at the Farm, filmmaker/narrator Rich Hoffmann asks, “How did I become so disconnected from my food?”

He’s referring to the chasm between production and consumption in the modern world of mega-farms and supermarkets.

Hoffmann, however, happens to be one of the most connected guys around—to the environment, his family, his values and, now, what he eats. Twenty minutes of stunning images and precise storytelling, Fridays celebrates the Community Supported Agriculture movement as it follows Hoffmann, his wife and his young son through a harvest season at Red Hill Farm in Aston. In addition to the satisfaction of a mission fulfilled, the short film has brought him recognition. “It’s been translated into Spanish and has played on every continent,” he says.

Hoffmann is not, however, eyeing the weekend grosses or cable/DVD aftermarket. His Media-based Coyopa Productions—which takes its name from the Mayan word for healing energy—seeks greater staying power. Hoffmann wants to help heal the planet, to create work that has the flavor and nutritional value of an organically grown tomato. But he wants to do so without sacrificing entertainment.

Take his current project, Where Watermelons Grow, a fictional tale about a child who transforms an unkempt urban lot into a community garden. The short film—scheduled to be shot as digital stills and transferred to an IMAX camera—will have time-lapse sequences to show the progression from seed to mature fruit. The story’s wonderful sense of discovery alters neighborhood perceptions. “We want to inspire kids to nurture the nature around them, and do it in a fun way—not condescending or didactic,” Hoffmann says.

To that end, Hoffmann, who grew up in West Philadelphia before moving to Narberth when he was in grade school, wants a “Little Rascals feel” to the youths in the story. He may even write the script without words to eliminate the need for translation and to speed potential international distribution. He wants the film site to become a permanent neighborhood garden, and plans to plow profits back into sustaining it and generating others—a real-life transformation.

“Kids are impressionable,” says Hoffmann, who has two little ones. “We want to raise everyone’s consciousness. I feel a sense of urgency that we have to take better care of the planet.”

Hoffmann’s three-minute short Seeds of Spring, with its strummed banjo soundtrack and no narration, tilled the soil for Watermelons. Presented in a format for planetarium domes, it has played at several venues built to accommodate its 180-degree visual. “We’re testing the medium,” says the filmmaker, who’s not fully committed to the dome style for Watermelons and may consider shooting with an IMAX 3-D camera instead.

Seeds, which also screened at the street fair GreenFest Philadelphia last September, uses the time-lapse technique to depict the planting process at Red Hill Farm. Sprouts stretch toward greenhouse sunlight before transplantation to adjacent fields. Like in all Hoffmann films, there are touches of humor, as when former Red Hill farmer Chris McNichol plucks a bulb out of his mouth, sets it down and watches it scamper across the soil before it stops and takes root.

Hoffmann’s creative roots are those of an artist on canvas, a sensibility that informs his first film, the feature-length Invisible Mountains. The budding artist attended Waldron Mercy Academy and then the Haverford School, where his diligence in making weight for wrestling bouts anticipated his aptitude for completing film projects within budget.

From the Main Line, it was off to New York City, where he studied film at NYU, interned for Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese, and worked as a film editor for one year before moving with his wife, Holly, to Media in 1997. That fall, he began writing Invisible Mountains, which explores an artist’s sometimes-harrowing bid to overcome painter’s block.
 

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