Although Sandy Cannon-Brown started her career in print journalism, she found her true calling in filmmaking when she anchored the news in Austin, Texas, for a period of time, saying that anchoring gave her a “taste of video and moving pictures in addition to just words on paper.”
Cannon-Brown is an independent environmental filmmaker with more than three decades of experience. She received her B.A. in communications and M.A. in film and video from American University, where she also taught filmmaking for 10 years. In 1985 she founded VideoTakes, a video production company based out of the D.C. and Arlington, Virginia, area.
Cannon-Brown has been involved with the Chesapeake Film Festival for more than a decade, both as a filmmaker and a volunteer. Last year, she decided she wanted to contribute more to the event and served as vice president of the annual festival. This year, she returns to the board as the development chair. In addition to helping with fundraising and identifying filmmakers for the festival, she was in charge of planning this year’s Heroes gala. The gala, which was held in August, celebrated the filmmakers and stars of the films.
“Sandy is an integral part of the festival, working with development, communications, programming, filmmaking, and just about everything else,” Chesapeake Film Festival Vice President Nancy Tabor says. “She is an unsung hero and definitely goes above and beyond the normal call of duty.”
We spoke with Cannon-Brown about her filmmaking experience, the festival, and her time spent volunteering.
What sort of content do you focus on in your films?
I’ve been in the Chesapeake Bay watershed for a long time now—about 35 years—and have loved being part of the water recreation. It’s very special to me; it’s my back yard. Because of that, I try to use my talents to do what I can to help keep it healthy and make sure that the rivers and the water around here are usable by people for generations to come.
The last few years, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to partner with writer Tom Horton and photographer Dave Harp, who have been covering environmental stories about the Chesapeake Bay for about 40 years. Together, we’ve started making films that relate to the bay and to the environmental health of the bay. The first film we did together was called Beautiful Swimmers Revisited, which celebrated the book Beautiful Swimmers by William W. Warner. It was a Pulitzer Prize-winning book that’s all about crab and crab management on the bay. We did one on climate change, which we call High Tide in Dorchester. And we did [a film] on Smith Island called An Island Out of Time, which shows an island that is threatened by erosion. These films have all been shown in the past at the Chesapeake Film Festival.
What do you enjoy most about volunteering with the Chesapeake Film Festival?
As a filmmaker, I know that we don’t make films just to make films. We make them to be shown and to be discussed, and we make them so that they are a tool for making change in this world. It’s very satisfying to help other filmmakers find a forum for their films and to give them a chance to share it with the community. It’s a wonderful place for filmmakers [and] for people who love films because early October is usually a beautiful time on the Eastern Shore. We hope that they will partake in the excitement over here of being out on the water and going to some of our wonderful restaurants and venues that we have. It’s just very exciting to be a part of this.
What can people expect at this year’s festival?
The 2019 festival will have about 62 films that will be shown in three cities [Easton, Cambridge, and Oxford]. The films are coming from all different places. They’re coming through our artistic director, Cid Collins Walker, who went to Sundance [Film Festival] this year. She was able to identify five or six films that we’re bringing to our little festival on the Eastern Shore. I’m very active in the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D.C., so I went to that festival in March, where I also had a film that was being screened, and picked out a couple of films that just wowed me to share with people over here. We have films coming from these very prestigious festivals with very well-known, experienced, and exciting filmmakers that come with them to talk to our audience.
It’s really an opportunity to give a community that may not get even as far as D.C. or Baltimore to see some of these great films. It has more of a neighborhood feel. You’re with your friends, you’re having the opportunity to chat with the filmmakers, and to have a real festival experience.
Do you have any advice for people interested in volunteering in their communities?
It’s very important if people want to see their community grow and see their community thrive. On the Eastern Shore, we have more than 500 worthy organizations that are doing things to make a difference in people’s health and their quality of life and the environment. There’s an opportunity for everybody to get off of their chair, get out there, and be part of that; to do something good for your own community, and that’s what I’m trying to do. I volunteer for a couple of other organizations, too, and it just makes you feel [like] more of a family [and] a community if you can participate and help secure a good future for that community.
The 2019 Chesapeake Film Festival runs October 3rd–10th. For more information on the Chesapeake Film Festival, visit chesapeakefilmfestival.com.
