Trail hikers make film

Outdoor adventure film in Vernon

VERNON — What happens when you put a lawyer, an Ivy grad and a city chick on the Appalachian Trail?

Find out on Thursday, July 5 at Vernon Valley Farm (Walker Farm), where this film will be screened in their barn, located at 99 Sand Hill Road (near Mountain Creek, off route 94).

"Beauty Beneath the Dirt" is a far cry from the typical outdoor adventure travelogue, say its creators. Unlike other Appalachian Trail documentaries that focus on camp life and the natural environment, Director Katherine Imp takes a raw and uninhibited look at what happens to the mind, body and soul over the course of a 2178.3-mile journey.

“I’ve always had a fascination with nature’s ability to transform, ever since my days of working for Outward Bound,” says Imp. “And though none of us were looking to be ‘transformed,’ I knew that five months on the trail would change each of us in some way. And I wanted to capture that change on film.”

Imp was joined on the trail by her brother Brandon, a 21-yr-old Ivy grad fresh out of college, and her best friend Emily, a 23-yr-old “city chick” born and raised on Chicago’s South Side.

“When Kate says she’s going to do something, she does it,” says co-producer Jason Furrer. “So when she told me she was making a film and wanted me to co-produce I was like, where do I sign-up?”

“I knew from the beginning that I couldn’t compete with one of those National Geographic films with the helicopter views and the close-ups of wild animals. I mean, let’s be real here, my initial budget was less than $15K,” Imp says. “Helicopter views weren’t happening.”

Though the film itself was self-financed, the there obtained a number of sponsorships prior to hiking the trail to help with the cost of the trip. Sponsors include some of the nation’s leading outdoor food and clothing companies such as Clif Bar, Superfeet, PrAna, Minute Rice and Bumble Bee.

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