Commissioners give $15,000 to film project

Courtesy photo

As a documentary about a local school corporation comes closer to fruition, the Putnam County Commissioners have pledged their support to the project.

On Monday, the Commissioners formally approved giving $15,000 to the film “North Putnam,” which will depict the year in the life of a rural Indiana community, specifically the six townships North Putnam Community Schools entails.

Beth Benedix, founder of The Castle and a DePauw University professor, conceived of the project and came before the Commissioners during their second June meeting to request financial support.

On Monday, she got the answer she hoped for in the requested $15,000, which is likely to be drawn from Economic Development Income Tax (EDIT) funds.

At this point any money donated to the project is going toward the production of a sample reel, a kind of short preview of the film that is produced to entice a studio to get behind the project.

The goal is to raise $50,000 for a quality sample reel. The Commissioners’ donation brings the total raised to $31,000.

“I’m so grateful to them for approving our request,” Benedix said.

Benedix said she has also been in talks with several corporations that seem eager to participate, and is applying for a grant through the Putnam County Community Foundation.

“I’m feeling like we can do a whole lot,” Benedix said. “I think we’re going to meet our goal.”

Another factor in the film’s favor is the involvement of director Joel Fendelman and producer James Chase Sanchez, whose award-winning 2018 documentary “Man on Fire” won multiple awards.

“Man on Fire” is about a small town, Grand Saline, Texas, grappling with the public suicide of a 79-year-old white Methodist minister, who left a note explaining that his final act, setting himself on fire, was a protest against the virulent racism of the community and the country at large.

Fendelman and Sanchez will both come to Putnam County in late August for their first visit to the community, as well as a screening of “Man on Fire” in the Peeler Arts Center auditorium on Sept. 1.

The event will be sponsored by the DePauw Media Fellows program, the Prindle Institute and the Putnam County NAACP.

Fendelman will then be back in early October for another screening at the Roachdale Community Center.

The idea is to get the public familiar with their work and to begin a conversation about the “North Putnam” project.

“They want to be as much a part of the community as they can be,” Benedix said. “They are really open to meeting people and talking with people.”

“Man on Fire” is also available to stream through Kanopy, which is free to those with a membership to a public library.