USA Projects

Now, Forager is a feature-length narrative, shot around the New York City area, scheduled to premiere in early 2012.

The story follows a husband and wife who earn a meager living by hunting wild mushrooms. During the warm months, Lucien and Regina gather a diverse bounty of edible fungi from area woodlands and then go door-to-door selling them to upscale restaurants. When winter comes, and mushrooms go into dormancy, the couple must find temporary work as kitchen laborers to make ends meet. They constantly struggle to get by, dependent on variables of rainfall and temperature--living without the protection of any safety net.

We've collaborated with chefs, restaurants, and wild foods experts (including members of the New York Mycological Society) to create a movie that pays realistic tribute to "the back of the house"--people who work in kitchens and those who work bringing food to the table for others.

The story takes place over the course of a year so that the audience experiences how the changes of season can have dramatic impacts on the lives of people whose livelihoods largely depend on forces outside their control. A prolonged summer drought or an early autumn frost can cost a forager a significant portion of a year's earnings.

One of Now, Forager's greatest production values comes from the exceptional beauty of diverse mushroom species growing in the wild--from the delicate but deadly Destroying Angel (Amanita bisporigera) to the glowingly edible Chicken-of-the-Woods (Laetiporus sulphureous) to the elusive spring morel (Morchella esculenta).

Because of the seasonal scope of this project, production took place over the course of a year (May 2010 to May 2011). We're currently in the late stages of post-production.

All money raised through United States Artists will be used toward immediate post-production costs: scoring, sound mixing, color correction, onlining, and mastering.

For more information, please visit our official website (http://www.nowforager.com) and our production blog  (http://nowforager.blogspot.com).