Filming for On Goat Farming meant living and working on the farm while balancing a documentary shooting schedule. Producer Carson Bennett and Director Nathan Keowen worked together to capture the world of the farm community and participate in their share of the labor.
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As Producer, Carson brought his experience with fiction shorts from attending Loyola Marymount University. With the unfluence of homesteading grandparents, Carson’s passion for local farming made this film an important one. He looks forward to completing his documentary South of David.
@carson_h_bennett
Samantha Garaygay got her BA in Film Production at UC Santa Crnz and worked as co-editor and producer for On Goat Farming. After her previous work in podcast production and social media management, this is Samantha’s first step into the world of documentary film.
@sam.bam.pow
Nathan Keowen shot On Goat Farming with his producer Carson Bennett in the Fall and Winter of 2023. This is Nathan’s second documentary short after his Loyola Marymount University thesis “High” Sierras, a docu-comedy about the trne story of the crash of the Yosemite weed plane in 1977.
@nathankeowen
WHAT WAS THE ORIGIN OF “ON GOAT FARMING?”
The original plan for the film was to create a portrait of a small farming community in the early stages of winter, but as we started filming, themes of death and loss came up more and more. Oftentimes it wasn’t even included in our planned interview questions, but our subjects, Annie and Emily, naturally gravitated toward that subject matter. It was an opportunity to let our subjects be the guides to show us what our film was ultimately going to be.
WHAT ELEMENTS OF FILMING PROVED PARTICULARLY CHALLENGING?
It was always difficult to remain observers while shooting sensitive material. In intense emotional moments, there was a line between filmmaker and participant. It was important to me not to let the filmmaking process get in the way of letting our subjects freely feel their emotions. We needed to be able to interject or turn off the camera when things got intense. We wanted to document their genuine experiences without exploiting their raw emotions.
WHAT IS THE WWOOFING PROGRAM? HOW DOES IT WORK?
WWOOF provides incredible opportunities for people to explore, learn, and grow through farming and travel. In order to make the film, my producer and I lived and worked on Jeremy’s farm. At his farm, we were provided with our own tiny cabins, a well-stocked community kitchen, and amazing learning opportunities. To live, work, and film on his farm was an opportunity that my producer and will never have again, and we are so grateful to Jeremy and everyone on the farm.
WAS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH DEATH AFFECTED MAKING THE FILM?
I think what makes the film’s reflection on death unique is the focus on young adult views on death. Annie and Emily are at a particular inflection point in their lives, an inflection point that I find myself at as well. I have reached the point where I feel as though I am preparing for death. Not my own, but that of the people close to me – my grandparents and my parents. I find myself bracing for the learned inevitability of my first great loss.
HOW IS “ON GOAT FARMING” DISTINCT FROM OTHER FARMING DOCS?
What makes our farming documentary unique is our focus on the intimate emotional experience of life on a farm. We aren’t focused on the intricacies of farm function, but instead, the intricacies of the relationships of the subjects and the farm.
DO YOU AGREE THE HOMESTEADING LIFESTYLE IS ROMANTICISED?
It was funny how often themes of romanticism came up while shooting. Everyone on the farm seemed hyper-tuned to the idea. I don’t know if, culturally, we have over-romanticized farm life, or simply disconnected from the realities of it. So whether or not we romanticize farm life, there is a lack of connection to the basic functions of how food reaches our plate.
WHY WAS “ON GOAT FARMING” NOT A FEATURE?
A lot of people asked us why we weren’t turning our film into a feature. With hours and hours of footage left on the cutting room floor, it often felt like we were losing great material. But the ultimate goal with the film’s narrative was to keep it focused and keep it condensed. If we had let it build into a feature it would not have had the thematic focus we were looking for in the film.
WHAT WAS THE HARDEST THING TO CUT FROM THE FILM?
As the director and cinematographer, every day was painful in the editing room. The hardest section to lose was “crafts.” We initially wanted to show more diversity of life on the farm – cooking, cleaning, watching hours of dating shows. One of those sections included all the different artist “craft” projects our main subjects were working on. Annie was working on handmade art prints of goats on the farm, Emily was working on building a mini pottery studio, and Jared had built a beautifully designed Little Library that they put up at the front of the farm.
WHAT’S NEXT AFTER “ON GOAT FARMING?”
The team behind On Goat Farming at our creative collective, Dinosaurs Invented Time Travel, is currently in production on a number of exciting projects. Our first feature documentary “South of David,” is in post-production, following the emotional transformation of a young cyclist as he recreates a 900 mile bike journey his grandfather took in 1979.
Nathan Keowen, 2024
Writer, Documentarian, Moron
