VERMONT — Planet Axis this week rolled out “Community Through Crisis: A Vermont Story,” a new film that features 10 businesses from across Vermont that have shifted their usual operations to provide various services for the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Film producers say it is a dose of good news and highlights the power of coming together in times of crisis.
This is the debut release of Planet Axis, a Vermont nonprofit that creates and curates films to inspire and educate people on important environmental and community issues.
Companies featured in “Community Through Crisis: A Vermont Story” include Harpoon Brewery, SILO Distillery, Vermont Glove and The Skinny Pancake.
Just like these companies, Planet Axis’s plans and day-to-day production operations were altered by the pandemic. Instead of waiting for a “return to normalcy” to commence planned projects, co-founders Wendy E. Reynolds and Stefan Beaumont decided to focus their lens on the topic at hand: the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on small businesses in the Green Mountain State.
“We were planning to film environmental content, the main focus of our new nonprofit, when the world shut down. At that time, we heard our friends at Silo Distillery were shifting their operations to make hand sanitizer. We knew that was a story that needed to be told,” says Reynolds, president of Planet Axis. “We helped them film a video for their GoFundMe campaign, and that’s when we came up with the idea to find out what other businesses were shifting operations to serve the community during these trying times.”
Reynolds, along with co-founder and award-winning filmmaker Stefan Beaumont, captured the operations of nine additional businesses across Vermont.
“I’ve always turned to my lens when I hear about an important story that needs to be told,” says Beaumont, Planet Axis vice president and director of photography. “The inspiring companies we’re featuring in this film show us what it means to come together for the greater good and give us hope and positivity in the darkest of times. They also make us proud to be Vermonters.”
“Community Through Crisis” is now in post-production. The film is planning a virtual premiere in the fall, as well as socially distant outdoor screenings. An official film teaser is available on the nonprofit’s new YouTube channel