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"The Land Sustains Us, A Todd Story"

Elkland Art Center will premier it’s documentary film, “The Land Sustains Us, A Todd Story” at 7 p.m., April 12 at the Todd Mercantile and at 7:00 p.m., April 13 at the Ashe County Arts Council. The film is intended to serve as an exploration and community conversation about how the changing landscape (development, infrastructure improvements, loss of environment, etc.) affects the sense of community in the village of Todd, NC.  The filmmaking has involved interviewing a cross-section of people from the community including long-term and short-term residents, developers, government officials and scholars, to obtain their insight into how land use has affected or changed their attitudes in the community.  A discussion with the documentary team will follow the screening.

Video team: Jim and Suzanne (on left)

"The Land Sustains Us, A Todd Story" explores how the changing landscape - development, loss of environment, etc - affects the sense of community in our small village of Todd, NC. The documentary process will involve interviewing a cross-section of people including long-term and short-term residents, developers and government officials, to obtain their insight in how land use affects or changes their attitudes in the community. The intimate scale of Todd allows us to explore this issue in depth. Though Todd is small, the issues are similar to those faced by other communities: extensive, rapid changes in land use and population and the community’s efforts to address those changes. It is the intent of the project to open up dialog in the community to gain perspective on the issues of land use and sustainability.

(above) Emilie and Jim, Suzanne and Martha (below)

The video team includes: Martha Enzmann, project director, artist, local business owner of Elkland Handwerke, Inc. and founder of Elkland Art Center; Suzanne Clouzeau, videographer with Clouzeau Productions; James Lewis, our interviewer, (local long-term resident, writer, photographer, historian and former daily newspaper reporter. James’ family settled in the area in 1840. Unlike many who left for good, James returned to Todd because, as he says, “Todd is still the most interesting place I have ever been.” ) and Emilie Enzmann, local resident (since 2002), business owner (Todd Mercantile and Bakery) and member of the Ashe County Comprehensive Land Use Planning Committee.

The documentary has been sponsored in part by a planning grant and a media grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Conservation Fund.