You are currently browsing Wynn Ponder's articles.
Keep track of the newest video uploads from “Small Town, USA,” and other film and television projects from IMG Pictures by subscribing to our Youtube channel and becoming a fan of our Facebook page. If you haven’t joined the “Small Town, USA,” Facebook group, click here.
We shot footage at the Peabody-Burns Junior Senior high school in Peabody, Kansas, last week, and look forward to sharing a webisode with you soon. In the meantime, our good friend and educational advisor, Dr. Steve Wyckoff, made the trip with us, and has covered the visit from an educator’s viewpoint on his educational reform blog. Check it out.
Cari Froese, Nick Unruh, Rex Watson and Steve Wyckoff at Peabody-Burns Junior-Senior High School
Sales of this book will help the Lighthouse Library project in Dexter, Kansas.
We have a growing community of friends on Facebook, too. Join our community.
America’s best small towns, according to Money Magazine. What can we learn from them? Check it out.
My favorite burger is cooked out back, on my patio grill, and though it seems impossible anyone could match that flavor on an indoor grill, Crabby Patty’s in Dexter, Kansas, does.
We went back to Dexter on Wednesday, February 17, 2010, (see part one of the story), to find out how things are going for Patty Hafenstein and the only remaining food store in Dexter.
Check out the IMG Pictures Facebook fan page to see newly uploaded photos from “Small Town, USA” shoots. Be sure to become a fan while you’re there.
IMG Pictures, the motion picture company behind “Small Town, USA,” recently produced a 30 minute television show called “Super Materials,” a fun-filled educational program about composites and how they’re changing the world. If you live in Kansas, you can watch the broadcast on KPTS on Thursday, February 11, at 7 p.m. If you’re outside Kansas, you can view the full program online until it comes to a PBS affiliate near you.
Other IMG Pictures projects include the recently completed short film, “Denial,” which is in circulation on the international film festival circuit, and “The Randy Castillo Story,” a documentary now in post production.
Be sure to join our Facebook groups and fan pages to keep up with “Small Town, USA” news and other IMG Pictures projects:
IMG Pictures Facebook fan page
“Small Town, USA” Facebook group
“Randy Castillo Story” Facebook group
It’s been suggested more than once that we post the trailer here on the blog, in addition to the website, so here it is …
Keep up with news on “Small Town, USA” and other IMG Pictures projects by becoming a fan of our Facebook page.
Please join us our growing online community at the Small Town, USA, Facebook group. You’ll meet a lot of great people there.
As the Lorraine, Kansas-based USD 328 Board of Education approves putting the question of whether or not to consolidate with Claflin USD 354 to a vote this spring, residents are acutely aware of the uncertainty of Small Town, USA’s future. Consolidation seems to be a fact of life in modern, rural America, but a community’s school is nearly synonymous with its identity, in many cases, so it’s always a tough decision. The Great Bend Tribune is following the story.
Posted by Wynn Ponder
Bring some extra cheer to your local economy this holiday season by purchasing gift certificates from restaurants, attractions and retailers in your community and county. Give them to friends and family, both inside and outside the area.
Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.
–James M. Barrie
Posted by Wynn Ponder
One of the most overlooked benefits of traveling in rural Kansas is the quality of the journey itself. Sure, the towns are as unique as fingerprints, as friendly as family, but the joy of the open road is nowhere more liberating than places like Highway 177 between Cassoday and Council Grove, or the fiery mesas on Highway 160 between Coldwater and Medicine Lodge, or Scenic Route 105 south of Toronto, or Highway 18 or Interstate 70 in the Smoky Hills.
posted by Wynn Ponder
If you’ve seen “March of the Penguins,” you’ve heard Alex Wurman’s music. He also composed the musical score for “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” and numerous other Hollywood movies. After reviewing our film proposal and trailer last week, he graciously agreed to add “Small Town, USA” to his list of credits.
Posted by Kirby Ross
Hot Wheels fans walk in line to receive their special edition Hot Wheels car as Director of Photography Nick Unruh and Writer/Producer Wynn Ponder film the event for "Small Town USA".
In case anybody was skeptical regarding whether it is possible to catch lightning in a bottle twice, the people of Phillips County, Kansas, answered that question a few weeks ago.
Posted by Wynn Ponder
The “Small Town, USA” website is up, with only a few “coming soon” spots. I’m particularly excited about the Webisodes link on the “About The Film” page. This will soon be home to daily and weekly uploads of footage we shoot in communities around the state. There are so many great stories in rural Kansas that we can’t possibly fit them all into a single movie, but we can make them visible on the world wide web. Some of these webisodes may also appear on the finished DVD as Special Features.
If you haven’t seen the movie preview yet, go to the home page and click on “Watch The Preview Trailer Now” to see the tone and style we’ll bring to the big screen. The trailer also shows the kinds of amazing people we’ve met during the past couple of months of shooting … Kansans with a vision–and a deep love–for rural America.
Be sure to go to the “Contribute” page and click on “Web Links” for rural community resources. Please email any links you’d like to see added. To share stories for possible use in the film, click “Contribute Stories” on the same page. Click on “Not Sure What To Write?” to find out what types of stories we’re looking for.
Also, please do chime in with your comments on this or any other blog article. It’s easy: just click on the title of the article you’d like to comment on, then scroll to the bottom of the page and fill in the blanks. Don’t be shy; this film, website and blog are for all of us.
“The Midwest’s image is framed by people on both coasts, folks who look down their noses on backward “cow towns” like Chicago. It is especially a problem in the news media. I am more and more convinced that the nation’s media needs to be forcibly relocated from New York City and Washington, just to see things from the perspective of a different city. I’m thinking Omaha.”
–Prof. Jay Price, Public History Program Director, Wichita State University
Posted by Wynn Ponder
My hometown was Bunavista, Texas, an unincorporated huddle of homes on the prairie, three miles from Borger, a community of 14,000. I lived there until the age of 9, and it was an unforgettable childhood.
Posted by Wynn Ponder
We recently visited Kanona, Kansas, to find out what a town looks like after everyone has left it. The last citizen departed Kanona in 1966. This is a real ghost town, not a quotation-marks ghost town, like the ones listed on Internet registries. Their version of a “ghost town” often overlooks the fact that a few people still live there.
Left to right: Wynn Ponder, Marci Penner and Jason Opat. Enjoying a beautiful afternoon on the patio at LaVon's Bakery and BBQ inBuhler.
Posted by Wynn Ponder
I met Marci Penner today, a hero of contemporary Kansas history. She’s instantly likeable. Make that lovable. And smart.
Posted by Wynn Ponder
LaVon’s Bakery & BBQ in Buhler. Delicious home cooking, rich with character, gorgeous setting … and don’t leave without having a piece of that banana cream pie.
Posted by Wynn Ponder
The “Small Town, USA” community is growing daily. Many thanks to:
· Kirby Ross, editor of the Phillips County Review, who gave birth to the idea for this important film.
· Richard Wood, who literally wrote the book on rural revitalization in Kansas.
· Jeff Hofaker of Phillipsburg, a believer in the importance of being a good citizen.
· Roger Hrabe of Plainville, a man with a real plan.
· Chris Sramek of Atwood, who sees how amazing his town really is.
· Judy Mills of Florence, who understands the value of beautiful things.
· Shane Marler of Peabody, a true lover of tourism and a salesman for the people.
· Jay Price of WSU, who is deeply fascinated by everything in Kansas.
· Duke Eldridge and family of Peabody, whose hospitality is boundless.
· Melissa Johnson of Kirwin, who carries the small-town torch with passion and poise.
· Gary Jones of Peabody, who is arguably the nicest person in Kansas.
· The Hodges family, the Spencer family and the Young family of Peabody, who invited us into their town and into their lives.
· All the other excellent people who have made our visits so pleasant and so interesting.
Another, special thank you goes to Richard Wood, author of Survival of Rural America: Small Victories and Bitter Harvests, for joining the “Small Town, USA” film advisory board.
And congratulations to Phillipsburg for being named one of only 25 Main Street cities in Kansas. Great job from a great town.
“Tell me the landscape in which you live, and I will tell you who you are.”
–José Ortega y Gassett
Posted by Wynn Ponder
We just finished a rough edit of the “Small Town, USA” movie preview and will soon post it on the website. I think it captures the spirit of what we’re finding out there in Kansas’ rural communities, the amazing variety of people, the poignant awareness of time’s passage … the hope for what lies ahead.
I love these towns, where people take extra time for themselves and each other, where the sky overhead doesn’t know the meaning of the word quit.
Human nature cannot be studied in cities except at a disadvantage–a village is the place.
–Mark Twain
