Shelf Life: The Film

June 2024 Newsletter

Shelf Life: The Film

I’m in Maine now, retracing the same migratory pattern for the 35th time, south to north, north to south, from the granite coastline of Maine to the limestone basin of Texas. My LinkedIn account noticed that I have been at the University of Texas at Austin for 13 years now, each year propelling the continuation of these seasonal migrations. 

For those of you who have been following my personal museum project, I am interrupting my story with news that comes from the Tribeca Film Festival in New York where my latest film, Shelf Life, just won the Best Cinematography in a Documentary Feature award.

Our cinematographer, Ezra Wolfinger, has worked on several film projects with us, and he has an artful and sensitive eye for capturing scenes worth seeing. While working with him on The Long Coast, he stood for hours in the freezing winter temperatures along the coast of Maine, capturing icy landscapes. For The Arc of Oblivion, he stood motionless in dark caves filming a scientist as bats swirled overhead. And for this film, Shelf Life, he chased cows across long steep hillsides in the Swiss Alps. He’s determined and we’re so lucky to have him on our team.

I first met Ezra on our Maine farm, almost two decades ago. Once in a while, we transformed the farm into a Renaissance Fair.