Updates on Tennessee and the future.

Well folks, Gay Farm Tour Summer 2009 has come to an end. It closed with an amazing week in middle Tennessee where I visited several queer land projects and farms run by queer folks. About an hour east of Nashville, there is a collection of around 100 queer folks living rurally, most all of whom are involved in food growing of some sort. This community of queer folks is centered around two larger notable queer communities- one of which is called Ida and the other I am not legally allowed to reveal the name of. Ida, which was my most wonderful host for the week, is home to 8 queer folks and on a beautiful piece of land that has several houses and barns which people occupy. I spent time getting to know MaxZine the main gardener there and one of the oldest residents. Ida is host to the notorious Idapolooza queer music festival to which 100s of queers flock to every year. Its known for being a highly sex positive space and just a safe space for being queer. One of my favorite things about Ida is one of their composting toilets that looks like a striped palace, has a very long dramatic staircase leading up to its platform which is home to not just one, but two lovely places to shit so you and a friend can do your business and have a chat at the same time. 

The other community I visited is home to author of Wild Fermentation and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, Sandor Katz. Sandy and another resident Spiky gave me a great tour of the gardens where they grow lots of food. This community is home to lots of folks and known as a sanctuary for faerie identified folks and gay men. I don't want to say too much about it, because its the kind of place where the beauty and uniqueness of it are beyond the capacity to be described and captured in words. 

I also spent a day hanging out at Little Short Mountain Farm, a new farm in the area running a CSA for its first year. I spent time with the CSA manager, Jimmy Rose, who talked a lot about what it means to be a queer farmer in a rural area. My visit to Tennessee brought me to a greater understanding of the difference in experience between queer farmers in the city and those in the country. I know that in the future, I want to focus on interviewing those queers who are living rurally, I know they are out there and their voices and experiences are a much needed contrast to that of urban queer farmers. 

Unfortunately, I was SO BUSY filming that I didn't have time to snap any photos in TN, so you'll just have to stay tuned to see these places and farmers. This tour has been amazing and rejuvenating, I met amazing farmers and saw unbelievably gorgeous land. It was such an honor to be taken into peoples lives for a day or two and to be able to ask folks any question and have them answer with such gusto and heart. So many thanks to all the farmers who participated and have interest in this project so far. Now that the tour is over, posting on this blog will subside for a while as I focus on making a trailer for the movie, applying for grants so that we can do more traveling and start on post-production, and having benefit events to raise some cash. I'll also be submitting a short film from footage shot this summer to the transgender film festival in San Francisco. Stay tuned...