Hannah Hearn | FST 495

Today, we went to Sandra Gamez’s house to interview her. She works at a hog farm and was able to discuss the many unfair practices towards the workers, including herself, as well as the treatment of the pigs. Once we got there, the trailer was smaller than we thought it would be, but Paige was able to get a good setup with the camera and lights once we moved some furniture around. Sandra did not want her identity to be revealed, and, so, Paige had to backlight her so that you could only see her silhouette.   I brought the shotgun and lavalier mics so Sandra could pick which one she wanted to use. She ended up choosing the lavalier mic, because it made her feel more comfortable, which was our main concern. Once, the interview started, everything ran pretty smoothly! Jocabed asked the questions, because Sandra speaks Spanish and would’ve needed Jocabed to translate if Lizzie conducted the interview. The farther we got into the interview, the more comfortable Sandra became, and she r...

Jocabed has secured our filming permits for the town of Magnolia and Kenansville, and we are currently planning the interviews with Marion Blackburn and Sandra Gamez. She has also called Smithfield and talked to a representative about securing an interview with us to discuss their plan for cutting down on greenhouse emissions. However, we were turned down and sent in a useless direction. Now, we are looking into talking to someone from NC Farm Families about their side of the issue. We have moved forward with the stylistic approach, as planned. On Saturday, our crew went out to Kenansville and Magnolia, NC to shoot b-roll, record some ambient sounds, and scout possible interview locations. Paige got great tracking/panning footage of hog and turkey farms, and I got good sound clips of outdoor/nature sounds, as well as sounds of pigs on the hog farm. We scouted out a couple locations (abandoned hog farms) to set our interview with Marion Blackburn at, but neither se...

Rene Miller Rene Miller is an African American woman who resides in Duplin County, NC directly across the street from a 100-acre hog farm. Miller, her family, and the community have all had adverse health effects from the amount of hog waste being sprayed several times a week. She has been featured in the Netflix documentary What the Health, speaking out about these issues and laying out the harsh reality of what they have to live through. Miller and 500 other residents of Warsaw, NC have filed civil suits against Smithfield's Pork Division, arguing that their practices are causing a nuisance for their community. Questions for Rene: What is your daily life like living by a hog farm? Have you or anyone else in the community experienced any adverse health effects? What has been your past experience when trying to put a stop to these unsafe practices. What is your view on this being a civil rights issue? Do you think this is an environmental justice issue? Were you...