Receiving this for the first time? If you’ve signed up for updates about German Soul, they are included here in /PLENTY, the every-so-often update from Vittles Films.
Most projects grow up. This one keeps going back to school.
German Soul started as a taste test. Then a series idea. Then a live show.
For one wild night this spring, it was half a dozen projectors on a farm and a crowd wandering from one glowing patch of story to the next.
Each version taught us something the last one couldn't. Lately, the lessons have been coming from actual classrooms.
Walking through the records, German Soul hoop house installation at Burkett Farm.
In June, German Soul was a host project in the Doc+ program at Duke's Center for Documentary Studies. Three students, Ayanna, Zane and Johanna, dug through archives and helped explore new creative directions. After a work-in-progress lecture, they interviewed audience members about their own food stories. Recent Duke grad Courtney Yribarren advised the students and helped build the Culinary Atlas, a nifty digital story-mapping platform that can trace unique family dishes (now in beta; reply for a link).
In August, writer Dawn Dreyer and live event producer Myra Weiss joined the core team for a weeklong creative "Hot Haus." We came in with a stack of questions, walked the land at Earthseed, and left with a whole new character. We’re not quite not ready to introduce them yet. Soon!
Hot Haus boards, left, and the immense N.C. cookbook collection at UNC Greensboro.
In September, we spent our first week at UNC Greensboro as part of the Tannenbaum Made incubator at the brand-new Jeanne Tannenbaum Center for Creative Practice. We learned about LED volumes (the giant screen walls studios now film against) and sat down with genetic counselors to talk about evolutionary mismatch: what happens when bodies shaped by one place and diet land in another.
Justin put the Culinary Atlas to work with food studies students, and we toured the library’s massive cookbook collection. It's real cute and organized by county, west to east. As we flipped through, some exciting patterns started jumping off the page.
Most recently, we shared some of those patterns at Thinking South, a series from UNC Chapel Hill's Center for the Study of the American South. Project advisor Marcie Cohen Ferris organized it as a feedback session, and scholars of German literature, folklore and food offered us some deep background context.
All of these creative practices keep us on a learning edge. It's a slower pace, but it’s show us what this project is becoming. And it can only work with people willing to stay for the long haul.
If you've given, advised or come to a show, that's you. Thank you.
If you're near Raleigh on October 7, come see where we're heading (details below). And on November 13, we'll share what the residency has grown into at the Tannenbaum Center in Greensboro.
/ LIVE EVENTS
OCTOBER 7 - Raleigh
Preview & Community Fundraiser
Transfer Co. Ballroom | 5:30 - 7:30p
An Oktoberfest-themed preview of the show in progress, with live music, film and passed bites from Chef Jake Wolf (formerly of Capitol Club 16). These will be tastings, not dinner — the food hall is open until 9:00 if you want to make a night of it.
The evening will include a game of "Guess That Dish" with special guest Chef Cheetie Kumar. Proceeds support a fall creative residency at UNC Greensboro's Tannenbaum Center for Creative Practice and further production in Germany and the Carolinas in 2027. A portion of each ticket is tax-deductible thanks to our fiscal sponsor, the Southern Documentary Fund.
Other Vittles Events
Oct. 08 | LOOK DIFFERENT: We’re Bringing Back Vine! - Mettlesome, Durham, N.C.
Nov. 13 | German Soul at Tannenbaum Center - UNC Greensboro, N.C.
Nov. 29 | Lecture at Reflektor, Elbphilharmonie - Hamburg, Germany
/ SIMMER
Y’all, Brittany Is Running.
If not now, when? If not us, who? One of my personal favorite moments filming THE DECIDERS: Red, Whiteville and Blue was witnessing Brittany Newton step into her own inside the halls of the NC General Assembly. As part of a working-class cohort in Whiteville, she had spent months learning about growing wealth inequalities, unfair tax laws and the ways state political leadership has negatively affected her community. It was her first time in the “People’s House” and she wanted answers.
The group had met with a number of representatives (their own legislators declined multiple requests), and she kept asking questions, understanding that political organizing is a long game and they needed to be consistent. Sen. Graig Meyer reminded her that a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” needed more courageous individuals to make that middle “by” part truly work. Brittany smiled back and let out a nervous laugh. The point landed.
This fall, Brittany Newton, an Army veteran and mother of two, is running for NC House District 46. Encouraged by Rep. Pricey Harrison, Brittany has been all-in, crisscrossing the district and making her case for political reforms that can help working people thrive, not just survive.
And the push for collective power is growing.
Go see Theory of Change, a timely documentary from local director Matt Durning, following three working-class women building trust and turning it into political wins the people in power didn’t see coming. It’s sweeping and intimate at the same time, pulling you into the door-to-door moments that matter this campaign season (full disclosure: I consulted on it).
In solidarity with the member-led organizing group Down Home NC, the filmmakers are presenting an impact screening tour across the state. Check out their dates or request a screening in your area.
/ NOURISH
A few things to nourish:
Cautionary Historical Fantasy. In my 20s I canoed down the Mississippi River with a group of friends. Stopping into old river towns along the way was like stepping back in time. The brilliant feature doc Natchez brought me right back to those muddy shores with indelible characters contending with the sticky lore and unsettled histories.
DURHAM FRINGE. A citywide celebration of experimental, interdisciplinary, and distinctly-Durham performing arts. The inaugural festival features dance, theater, live music, clowning, comedy, poetry, puppetry, visual art, literary art, and interactive experiences created by Durham-based artists.
Bedtime Poetry. This summer a dear friend gifted me the timeless American Primitive by Mary Oliver. I've been reading a few pages before bed, which makes for a deeper, dreamier rest.
Here is an offering in remembrance of another American treasure, Mr. Wendell Berry:
THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Take care of yourself and one another.
— DLA