2011Mountainfilm in Telluride: Ian Cheney, filmmaker

18 May 2011Mountainfilm in Telluride: Ian Cheney, filmmaker

[click “Play” to hear Ian Cheney’s conversation with Susan]

Wicked Delicate is one helluva compliment paid to a good blueberry pie in the state of Maine, one of the two addresses (the other is Massachusetts)  where Ian Cheney grew up. It is also the name of the documentary film advocacy project founded in 2006 by Ian and Curt Ellis.

Under the auspices of Wicked Delicate, Ian and Curt, fellow graduates of Yale, co-created, co-produced and co-starred in the feature documentary “King Corn,” granted a George Foster Peabody Award in 2009. “King Corn” follows Ian and Curt as they discover where America’s food comes from when they plant a single acre of corn and follow it from seed to dinner plate.

Cheney’s next project was “The Greening of Southie,” featured in The New Yorker and on “Good Morning America.”  The documentary tells the story of Boston’s first LEED-certified residential green building and the people who made it possible in the traditionally Irish-American neighborhood of South Boston.

Cheney’s two new films are “Truck Farm,” the story of urban agriculture, a growing business in The Big Apple and “The City Dark,” about light pollution and the disappearing night sky. Both films are featured at the 33rd annual Mountainfilm In Telluride.

“Truck Farm” explores the potential of urban agriculture, on the surface, an oxymoron. The idea for “City LIghts” hatched when Ian moves to New York from Maine and discovers the twinkle twinkle of little stars blotted out by the city’s lights. What evolves is an introduction to the science of the dark and an exploration of the human relationship to the stars.

Ian is also a founding board member of FoodCorps, an Americorps School Garden and Farm-to-School program launched this year and now occupying almost all of Curt’s time and energy. (Curt will be speaking at Mountainfilm’s Moving Mountain Symposium on the subject.)