Channel: NoBudge

Category: Film & Animation

Tags: no-budget filmindie filmmakersnobudgeindie filmlow-budget film

Description: A young post-grad passes time during the pandemic exploring the land and finding meaning in a new hobby. “Fallen Trees,” directed by Jared Callahan and Jonathan Pickett, is a documentary portrait of an unusual creative practice, rendered with a gentle, meditative tone. Living in a farm community, the young man tends to chickens while looking for teaching work after college. When the work doesn’t arrive, he searches for fallen trees around the property from which to handcraft unorthodox baseball bats. The joy of the film is in watching the process from start to finish — step by step, a tree branch is trimmed, carved, and sanded into an iconic American object, albeit one with an artist’s twist. In its gradual revelation, it reflects a common plight of youth striving to make sense of an ever confounding world. But the piece refuses cynicism altogether, as it keeps its eye on craft and discovery with an endearing, old soul personality. -KA. Directors, producers: Jared Callahan & Jonathan Pickett. Starring Steven Kennedy. DP/Editor: Jonathan Pickett. *The filmmakers do not own the rights to the songs in the film*