Take 5 with "Brown Family Dairy"

Meghan Leonard (left) with co-directors. 

As we gear up for the Oxford Film Festival 2011 to be held at the Malco Studio Theater on Feb. 10-13, 2011, we thought we might introduce you to some of the people behind the movies we can't wait to
show you.

Meet our Take 5 filmmaker, Meghan Leonard, a graduate student who was one of three collaborators to create the short Mississippi documentary "Brown Family Dairy" which plays in the Mississippi doc block on Saturday, Feb. 12 at 1:30 p.m.

For the full schedule and description of the films, visit www.oxfordfilmfest.com.

Q. 1: In 140 characters or less, describe your movie and why someone should see it.

A: Because it shows what people can accomplish with very little filmmaking experience. And the Brown Family Dairy is awesome!

Q. 2: Biggest lesson learned in getting the film made? Best part in getting the film made?

A: Seeing as how we were all film "newbies" going into the project, we all had a great time learning how to properly interview people, work the cameras, set up shots, etc. Basically in two months time, we had learned all the skills needed to make a short documentary.The biggest lesson we learned was that filming the documentary was just the start of it; editing, of course, was the most time consuming.

Q. 3: Tell us about you. What is your movie making background?

A: All three of us came into this project with hardly any filmmaking experience. Through working with Dr. Andy Harper and Dr. David Wharton in the Southern Studies documentary fieldwork class, we were able to given the equipment and skills necessary to film a short documentary. After two very short months of shooting and editing, we had produced our film.

Q. 4: What's your dream distribution plan for the film?

A: Right now we are all students, so just getting it into the Oxford Film Festival was amazing. Of course, we'd love to take it to other film festivals across the South just so we could show people what (besides great literature) is coming out of rural Northern Mississippi.

Q. 5: What does the future hold in store for your film and for you?

A: We all are in our second year in the Southern Studies graduate program, so the future holds graduation and whatever life throws at us next. We'd like to keep sharing the film with anyone who has fifteen minutes they'd like to give us.