NBC снимает документальный фильм о роли фермеров Северной Дакоты в обеспечении продовольствием мира

On this day in 1974, an NBC film crew was in Harvey, North Dakota, documenting local farmers and their role in the world’s food supply. Here is the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day: ADVERTISEMENT Harvey: A Real-Life Situation By PAMELA KNUDSON Staff Writer HARVEY, N.D. — The sight of a busy film crew, serious sound men and directors with clipboards may be an uncommon spectacle in the spare streets of a prairie farming town, but in this Wells County community, it’s aroused little more than raised eyebrows and idle wonder. “It’s hard to get people excited about anything these days,” commented a Lutheran minister over his morning cup of coffee and pastry. “I guess I’m like most people — curious, but don’t really know what’s going on,” theorized Rev. Marvin Holje of the 1st Lutheran Church. His coffee partner, Rev. Robert Logan of United Methodist Church, added that the townspeople, about 2,500 all told, “feel it is an honor” to have this NBC crew use Harvey in their documentary on the world’s food situation. “As far as I know, there’s been 100 per cent cooperation with these people. I haven’t heard anything negative about them or the project,” he added. Although neighboring farmers have had the most contact with “the NBC people,” as they were dubbed, motel and restaurant employes, local business people and townsfolk in general have been impressed by their friendliness. ADVERTISEMENT The seven men and one woman composing the crew are on a familiar, first-name basis with their steady waitress. The innkeepers take messages for the crews and follow the course of their work schedule. A 19-year-old Harvey girl, Ellen Gabbert, was hired to provide them with lunch when they are at work on a farm, to run errands and to locate nearby farms for them. When one sound man took a seat at the bar he was joined by several newly-won cronies. Laughter and song drifted back to the restaurant. “I don’t think I’ve ever met more common, nice people,” said the wife of Arley Running, a Harvey farmer on whom the crew is focusing. “They are just a great crew to work with.” Chatting in the kitchen of her spotless farm home, Arlene Running and Karen Rutledge associate producer, ran the gamut of topics from antiques to cats to home canning like a couple of next-door-neighbors at a coffee klatch. Outside, the rest of the crew ran Arley up and down the dirt road in order to get the right shot, one that portrayed the farmer’s point of view from the cab of his truck. Arley had been wired and taped up with neck-laced microphone, all the while teasing the sound man for having “cold hands.” “Arley’s getting used to repeating things,” said Mrs. Running. “We never realized how much film they had to take and how much work these people had to go to.” ADVERTISEMENT An attitude of getting the job done exists, but it is so interlaced with friendly joking and genuine concern for the subjects that the degree of professionalism is neither abridged nor suffocating. “It’s been very educational for us,” noted Mrs. Running. “It’s flattering to be chosen,” said Arley Running, talking about being selected as the “typical” farmer to tell the story. “‘Interesting,’ if you have to put down one feeling. “We’re learning as much from them as they are from us.” He recalls being surprised when they phoned him from New York. “They had interviewed several farming families in the area,” he said. “But the question was, why was our community singled out, why Harvey—not, why the Runnings.” Harvey, it seems, was eventually chosen for the timeliness of its harvest. After all the preliminary research would be accomplished, the crew figured, harvest would be completed in all but the northernmost states. Kansas was originally considered with its wheat crop. ADVERTISEMENT A call to the North Dakota State Wheat Commission produced a recommendation that Harvey be the focal point. And work commenced. A 500-page research manual was compiled and submitted before the idea to discuss the world’s food supply and her suppliers could be approved. With that, three NBC employes came to Harvey in mid-July to survey the situation; they spoke to several Wells County farmers and were refused an interview by only one. No film or recordings were made until their second trip the last two weeks in August. “When we got here we heard there had been a rumor that it was all a joke, people weren’t really sure after Paul made the reservations if it was for real or not,” Karen said. She added that everyone had been “very, very cooperative.” “If I were them and people came into my living room with lights to tape on the walls, cameras and everything, I’d be climbing the walls!” she said. Thirty-three-year-old Arley Running and his family find it an honor, a rare experience and yet do not feel it is interrupting their lives or harvesting schedule. “It’s not interfering because we don’t let it interfere,” asserted Running. “We have enough extra help to get the work done and my work is getting done.” ADVERTISEMENT Running’s 3,000-acre, durum-raising operation was singled out for the documentary because “He is typical of the new breed of farmers, the ones who are willing to lay down everything for the farm, to spend to the limit of their credit to make a go of it,” according to Paul Gerken, film unit manager. “This is going to affect this man a great deal,” Gerken continued. “He may be more respected in the community, maybe less. This may cause people to be more suspicious of the media, but it may cause them to be more responsive to it.” A Hurdsfield farmer and grain elevator owner, Norman Weckerly, was interviewed at length and stated he was pleased they chose this area. “There is a conspicuous lack of interest in what’s going on up here. You always hear about corn in Iowa or wheat in Langdon,” he went on. “Sometimes we feel like we’re talking to ourselves out here.” He hoped the project would open up “more communication between producers and consumers.” He was cordially thanked by the show’s producer for “an excellent interview — I really enjoyed it.” The seriousness of the subject matter is the underlying motivation, however. It was illustrated thus: The oil crisis was one thing, but food, that’s basic to live. The documentary will deal with the questions, does the United States have the responsibility of feeding the world, could we in the future and what is the situation today? The prevailing theme is “today’s crisis, tomorrow’s tragedy.” ADVERTISEMENT With this in mind, interviewers posed the questions of morality and ethics to some of the farmers. They reported no problems gaining the trust and acceptance of those they questioned. “They’re talking about something they know. It’s their life,” explained Ms. Rutledge. The completed documentary with segments on India’s farming picture and views of various food experts will be aired at 9 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 24. Asked if any actors, camera-happy or camera-shy, had been produced, Gerken commented, “No. They’re all real-life people with real-life situations.”