Growing Up In Middle America? 13 Years in the Making

Before the pandemic -I recently hopped on a short flight from Kansas City, to Austin, TX. I was met at the airport and taken to a contemporary home in an East Austin neighborhood, where there are a group of filmmakers plowing through hundreds of hours of footage. They are relentlessly carving out stories that reflect the lives of girls who are now grown women in Kansas City and St Joseph, Missouri, to fit within a bigger over-arching story, none of them can wait to see complete. They are making magic. They are a band of 15 or so dedicated editors, interns, and other filmmakers who want nothing more than to get to the end of the road on a project that has been in the works for more than 13 years. That’s right, I am a Producer of a film that is 13 years in the making. What on earth could make anyone stick with a project this long? How could they maintain the support of the investors and other stake holders?

Lately I hear a lot of talk about content being king, and that authentic storytelling is one of the most valuable things that one can find. My trip to Austin showed me that we are compiling some of the most compelling footage that I have seen. We have some amazing content. Inside the main room of this house, there is a large wall covered with sticky notes, clearly orchestrating each moment and section of the film. The leader of this group and my producing partner, Director, Tara Veneruso, takes the time to walk me through every beat of this story. It took hours, but it is riveting. It is tragic, and inspiring. I feel tears welling up just thinking of the clips I have seen and the story that is coming together on this wall of post it notes. The idea of telling an authentic story about real life is what keeps this Austin group plowing away on a film that they believe will one day be something very special. You see, thirteen years ago, Tara called me up in KC, and said “Hi, I am Tara Veneruso, and I want you to help me make a movie about what it’s like to be a girl in Middle America.” The film would feature 30 girls ages 12-14 in Kansas City, and St. Joseph MO. She wanted to follow them, get to know them, and explore what they were all about. I did not see at the time what an important and impactful story this could be, but somehow, I felt like Tara was not going to take no for an answer. So, I was in.

We shot the Summer of 2007, and then again, the Summer of 2008. After much debate of how we move forward, we decided that we needed more time to see where this story took us. We would track and stay in touch with each of these girls over the next ten years. We lost track of some, and would desperately work to locate them. And then came the moment, ten years after we had begun, we knew that enough time had passed for us to see how life had treated the girls. In the Summer of 2017 we reunited with the girls who were now young women. Kids who you thought had little chance to make it in life were thriving, while others were at rock-bottom. We observed the challenges of being a girl in Middle America. It is a tragedy, it’s a comedy, and it’s a story of hope.

Standing there in Austin it hit me in the face. This Team is doing some of the most important work that exists, they are creating content that can impact public opinion. They are creating a narrative about young women and girls, and what they actually face and how their journey is not the same as a boy’s. In closing, I am sending out all of my gratitude to everyone involved with this film (especially Tara, for her vision and leadership), the investors, everyone who has put their heart into this, and everyone who will watch it one day (soon!). Most of all, I am grateful for these young women who were brave enough to participate, giving us rich and meaningful content that has the opportunity to be impactful. It feels amazing to be a content creator and storyteller, and even better to know that there are people buried in computers in Austin plugging away so one day the world can see what we have been planning for 13 years.