That inclination came in handy when Swanson and her husband, Vince O’Connell, decided to produce and direct a feature film called Farmer Of The Year. Swanson drew on her treasure trove of observational material to write a touching and very witty screenplay that, though fictional, relies heavily on her dad’s life as a small-town farmer. The film was shot in her hometown of Tyler, MN, with some scenes filmed on the family farm and in her retired father’s house.

The story follows a widowed farmer named Hap (Barry Corbin of Northern Exposure fame) as he is about to retire and turn his spread over to his son and daughter-in-law. At a loss for what to do with himself, Hap initially tries to corral his brother Virgil (Terry Kiser of the Weekend at Bernie’s films) into taking a road trip west with him.

When that doesn’t work out, Hap’s granddaughter Ashley (Mackinlee Waddell of ABC’s Good Christian Belles) steps in. Adrift after returning from college and having trouble finding a job, and in perpetual conflict with her parents as they take over the farm, Ashley sets off with Hap in a Winnebago that looks like it could disintegrate at any minute.

As they head west, Hap and Ashley encounter a variety of recognizably absurd and comic situations involving satellite navigation, online dating, currency (remember traveler’s checks?), and people who aren’t what they seem. Despite their generational differences, Hap and Ashley come to understand and assist each other as only two people on parallel tracks can. One of the film’s tag-lines, Life Is One Long Growing Season, says it all.

The film played in January at Montpelier’s Capitol Showplace, where it beat several Hollywood movies as the second-highest-grossing film of the week. It has also been viewed at a number of film festivals throughout the country, racking up nominations for best feature film, best actor, and best supporting actress, and winning in the audience choice, best actor, and emerging director categories.

Swanson and O’Connell took an unlikely and long route to filmmaking, and are gratified by how it’s worked out.

After childhoods that couldn’t have been more different (Swanson was a cheerleader, a dairy princess, and a college wrestling statistician in Minnesota, while O’Connell was born in Brazil and lived all over the world with his peripatetic parents), the two met in the early 1980s while working for the Craftsbury Outdoor Center.

Given the seasonal nature of the work, Swanson also worked for the US Forest Service in Washington state. Meanwhile, O’Connell, a cyclist and Nordic ski enthusiast, founded the endurance sports apparel company VOmax in western Massachusetts.

After selling the highly successful business in 2005, the pair spent time in Washington, where they enrolled in a one-year film production program at Selkirk College, across the border in Nelson, British Columbia. O’Connell notes with amusement that they were the oldest students in the program “by 35 years.”

By this time, they were already establishing permanent roots in Craftsbury, having bought a ramshackle farmhouse in sight of the ski trails where they had met. They spent years renovating the house that also serves as headquarters for their production company, YellowHouse Films.

Swanson already had degrees from the Minnesota State University at Mankato and Syracuse University. O’Connell, who had attended the University of Massachusetts without graduating, finished his degree at Johnson State College in 2011. Armed with those credentials and their Selkirk experience, they enrolled in the film school at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. With a number of short films under their belts, they spent four years bringing Farmer Of The Year to fruition.

The television sitcom Seinfeld, which its creators called “a show about nothing” because it used common situations to great comedic effect, was a major inspiration for them as they worked on the project. “Our daily routine was work, eat, ski and watch two Seinfeld episodes,” said Swanson.

During their film’s run at the Capitol, Swanson and O’Connell were on hand two nights for an audience Q and A. As the pair exited the theater the final night, manager Teddy Cheney said to be sure to let him know when their next film is ready, because he’d like to feature their work again.

They are, indeed, thinking ahead to two projects. O’Connell is working on a “gritty, dystopian sci-fi” story that would be manageable to produce. Swanson has an idea that would be more complicated to produce, but which they believe has a lot of promise. It’s based on a true story involving a small-town sports team and school consolidation — issues that are near and dear to Vermonters’ hearts, especially these days.

For more information:
Farmer Of The Year website: www.farmeroftheyearmovie.com
Farmer Of The Year screening schedule:
http://www.facebook.com/pg/YellowHouseFilms1/events/?ref=page_internal

“We bought land in upstate Washington, and found this film school just over the border in British Columbia, about an hour away,” Swanson says. They ended up getting their MFAs at Ohio University, shot “Farmer of the Year” in Swanson’s hometown of Tyler, Minn., inhabited by just over 1,000 people, and did most of the postproduction in Craftsbury Common, Vt., where they had kick-started their own production company, YellowHouse Films. Swanson wrote the script, they produced and directed together, and O’Connell served as editor.

Now they are releasing the movie themselves. “We are self-distribution on steroids,” Swanson says. “We do it all ourselves. It’s a lot of work, getting all of the moving parts together and getting people into the theater.” “Farmer of the Year” was an award-winner at the Woods Hole Film Festival and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival last year, and Swanson and O’Connell will be screening it at 7 p.m. tonight, June 20, at Wellfleet Preservation Hall, as part of the Local Lens Film Series, introducing the film and doing a Q and A afterward.

“Farmer of the Year” tells the story of Hap Anderson (played by Barry Corbin of “Northern Exposure” and “No Country for Old Men”), who sells his family farm to his son and daughter-in-law, packs up his Winnebago camper and travels to California for a reunion of his World War II regiment with his granddaughter, Ashley (Mackinlee Waddell), a modish millennial.

“Audiences really enjoy the film,” Swanson says. “It’s a ‘coming-of-aging’ story with a sense of real life within the rural Midwest vernacular. Cinematically, as the landscape is so evocative, we knew it would transfer well to film, and we wanted to introduce an audience to a location and lifestyle that’s rarely seen.”

They’re working hard to make it visible. Swanson and O’Connell say that they have screened the movie at multiplexes, film festivals, independent theaters, and rehabilitated community spaces across the country. “We’ve had ten showings a day in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, where the subject matter and setting were very familiar,” O’Connell says. In Hendricks, Mich., for example, they sold 900 tickets in a very small township.

Swanson’s screenplay is gentle and nostalgic, with a smattering of sweet-tempered comedy. Although stubborn in his ways, Hap is a likable guy who has still got game when Ashley introduces him to online dating.

Swanson and O’Connell hired a professional director of photography, Rob Featherstone, and, with incentives from the State of Minnesota, got Will Van De Crommert to compose an original score. The 28 other crew members were either local or from their alma mater, Ohio University. Other than the principals, they got locals to act in the film, including local police officers — and their cars. In one scene, the cops arrive when Hap pilfers a corn ornament from the Corn Palace gift shop after his traveler’s checks are rejected by the cashier. “The chief of police wasn’t exactly expecting the policeman driving the vehicle to turn the lights on,” O’Connell says. “So there was a little difficulty there, in terms of legality.”

While discussing the film at their beach house, they get a call from Swanson’s father — most likely about an internet problem, O’Connell says — the man who partly inspired the character of Hap and gave the couple permission to shoot on his farm. “I’ve always felt lucky to have that world as my foundation,” Swanson says. “I grew up doing chores, knowing everyone, dancing with my parents at the Legion Hall, and watching beef commercials. It was only natural to draw from that world.”

In anticipation of summer renters, Swanson and O’Connell are planning to move their editing lab and equipment back to Vermont. They eventually hope to release the film on DVD with a commentary track, but their last plan of action is to put it on a streaming platform. “We have a great mailing list of people really dedicated and supportive of the film,” O’Connell says.

Farmer of the Year follows the story of 83 year-old Minnesotan farmer, Hap Anderson, who sells the farm he worked his whole life on. Now at a loss, Hap and his brother set out on the road trip of a lifetime in an ancient Winnebago all while Hap questions his purpose and accomplishments along the way. The film stars Barry Corbin (No Country for Old Men, WarGames), Mackinlee Waddell (GCB) and Terry Keiser (Bernie Lomax from Weekend At Bernie’s).

Farmer of the Year has been a project long in the making, starting all the way back in the winter of 2014. Kathy expresses that “Vince and I had done so many short films between us, we figured it was time to do a feature…the gold standard of filmmaking.” So the project took off with both Vince and Kathy pulling inspiration from their lives. Kathy, who grew up on the farm used in the film, wanted to show the world in which she grew up in “doing chores, knowing everyone in town, and dancing with her parents at the legion hall.” With a foundation laid, they wanted to create a theme for the story. “I had been watching my 80-year-old dad struggle with staying young and positive and liked the idea of a young person’s and an old person’s lives paralleling each other” Kathy said. “I wanted to blend those aging and transition themes with authentic dialog and real people. Our intention was to universalize themes for people who are finding their way between stasis and change. So, it’s really relatable for all ages.”

The principal photography for the film was 28 days in the summer of 2016 with four additional days of pickups the following summer when the exteriors all matched the same. An official wrap of production happened after a one-day shoot in January 2018, which was only three weeks before the film’s world premiere at the Sedona International Film Festival.

An experienced crew was needed in order to make this film happen. “Our cinematographer was out of New York and our sound person was out of Minneapolis.” Recruiting other crew via “OU grads and word of mouth…we did a couple of recruiting presentations at the school. We reached out to the School of Film, Media Arts, Journalism, classmates. Also, we didn’t really want to make the film unless we were able to recruit some experienced, recognizable actors. And we really didn’t know where to start, so we just started…one step at a time. And learned about the casting process.”

In the end, Farmer of the Year was finished and on its way to being shown to the public. Kathy and Vince express that, “We want the audience to empathize with the two main characters and to experience a deceptively simple movie that engages serious, universal themes: transition, aging, loss, loneliness. We wanted it to be funny in a human, real-life sort of way. The same with the drama. We want the audience to relate to the characters and feel satisfied when they leave the theater.” To achieve this, they worked endlessly to keep “high production values and score and a project we could be proud of.” Most of all, though, Kathy and Vince want people to enjoy the film.

Kathy and Vince express excitement in response to bringing the film back to their alma mater. “We don’t know how many of the crew are still around, but it will be really fun for them to see their hard work up on the big screen. Also, we were in Athens long enough to meet a lot of nonstudent folks and it will be fun for them to see it too. And it will be enlightening for current film students, if they are serious about being filmmakers, to see that making a feature film is possible.” Along with this, they express thanks to Ohio University students, alumni, the Ohio University School of Film for the equipment, and grant funding through a Student Enhancement Award. Additionally, they extend gratitude to “School of Film faculty and filmmaker Tom Hayes…who’s editing help was invaluable and Annie Howell, an ex OU faculty member and filmmaker, who was very generous with information and support as well…even after she retired from the program.

Kathy and Vince have no plans on stopping now that they have the ball rolling. “Farmer of the Year is still going strong and, as long as that is the case, we’ll keep promoting and screening it around the country. We have another screenplay and we’re just starting work on securing funding. Another thing we’ve never done!”

Make sure to catch Farmer of the Year this week only at the Athena Cinema, April 16th -18th. And stay after the screening for a talk back with the filmmakers.

“We’re wrapping up our festival itinerary and starting to self-distribute the film theatrically,” said Swanson. “We’ve been in about 40 theaters since September.”

The film is screening in theaters from Washington to Vermont — from multiplexes and family owned chains to four-walling, which is what they are doing in Plainfield where they will bring their own equipment and turn the venue into a movie theater.

“We had a lot of venue options for premiering the film in western Mass,” said Swanson. “But we really wanted to screen it in Plainfield. It still feels like home.”

The film stars Emmy-nominated Barry Corbin (“Northern Exposure,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Urban Cowboy” and “War Games”), Mackinlee Waddell (“Good Christian Belles”) and Terry Kiser (“Weekend at Bernie’s”).

Written by Swanson and shot largely at the farm on which she grew up and in her hometown of Tyler, Minn. (population 1,200), “Farmer of the Year” is the story of Hap Anderson, a widowed 83-year-old farmer who thinks he’s still quite the ladies’ man.

After selling the family farm he has worked for more than 60 years, he finds himself adrift and staring a short future in the face. Driven by the possibility of showing up with an old flame and impressing his old army buddies, he sets out in a dilapidated 1973 Winnebago to attend his 65th World War II reunion in California with his unreasonably self-confident and also directionless granddaughter, Ashley.

Along the way, Hap with his road map and Ashley with her gps, begin to understand and appreciate each other as individuals, while discovering that being young and being old aren’t all that different. It’s a deceptively simple look, presented lightly and with humor, at aging, transitions, loss and family.

Filled with understated small-town humor and restraint, “Farmer of the Year” captures the sense of real life, location and spirit of rural America with a unique combination of homegrown and Hollywood.

“The film is set in ‘farm country’ and the main character is an aging farmer, but it’s not just about farming,” said O’Connell. “It’s a commentary on themes of aging, loss, transition and relationships.”

The film has been selected to screen at film festivals across the country, winning Audience Choice Awards at the Minneapolis St. Paul, Sedona and Woods Hole International Film Festivals. It won Best Actor for Corbin’s performance at Woods Hole, and was nominated for Best Feature Film and Best Actor at the Soho International Film Festival in New York City, N.Y., and Lady Filmmakers Festival in Los Angeles, Calif.

“We’re overwhelmed with the response … audiences are really enthusiastic about it … and not just Midwesterners,” said O’Connell. “We were one of the only feature films at Woods Hole to sell out.”

Swanson wrote the screenplay and O’Connell did the editing. They both directed and produced the film.

The screening of “Farmer of the Year” at Plainfield Congregational Church, 1 Church Lane, will be followed by a question and answer session with the filmmakers.

But he can’t show up to the reunion without a date, “like some kind of loser,” so he, joined by his unemployed granddaughter Ashley (Mackinlee Waddell), decides to drive from Minnesota to California in his 1973 Winnebago, planning to pick up a former flame on the way.

Despite their impending deadline to make the reunion, Anderson and, reluctantly, Ashley throw their agenda to the wayside to stop at a handful of oddball tourist attractions, like the Corn Palace in South Dakota (“Corn I help you?” an employee asks Anderson).

During the trip, and with the help of a few eccentric characters, Anderson realizes he doesn’t have to be defined by his age.

The film will have its Pacific Northwest premiere Saturday at the Cutter Theatre in Metaline Falls, where Swanson and O’Connell once lived.

“Farmer of the Year” is Swanson and O’Connell’s first feature film, though the pair has made several shorts through their Yellow House Films since attending a yearlong film program in Nelson, British Columbia, in 2009.

It was during this time that the pair split their time between Nelson and Metaline Falls.

“We had always liked film. It wasn’t like we were born with a camera in our hands,” Swanson said. “If there was an indie filmmaker showing a film within 100 miles and there was going to be a Q&A, we would always go because they were really interesting.”

The story of Anderson and Ashley was personal for both Swanson and O’Connell.

A few years ago, O’Connell’s uncle lost his wife of 60 years. Around the same time, that uncle’s grandson graduated from college and was a little confused as to his next step.

“They moved in together and supported each other as buddies and helped each other get through that tough time,” Swanson said. “We were visiting, and I could see all that. It was such a wonderful situation, the two generations supporting each other like that.”

When creating the character of Anderson, Swanson also took characteristics from her father.

“People will ask ‘How did you nail aging so well?’ ” she said. “ ‘I have a bigger than life example right in front of me.’ ”

The pair shot “Farmer of the Year” in Minnesota and South Dakota in 28 days during the summer of 2016, following five months of pre-production work that found the pair staying with Swanson’s father in Tyler, Minnesota, where she grew up.

Swanson grew up on the farm that doubled as Anderson’s farm (her brother still works the land), and the pair used Swanson’s father’s home as Anderson’s home.

The pair filmed a new opening sequence during the summer of 2017, and filmed a new ending in January.

“It was blowing snow, but we made it look like summer,” O’Connell said.

“Farmer of the Year” star Corbin is best known for roles in “Northern Exposure,” “WarGames” and “One Tree Hill.”

The pair believes Corbin was interested in the role of Anderson because it was unlike the military or law enforcement characters he typically portrays.

“He’s a real pro,” O’Connell said. “We had a limited amount of time, and we had 37 locations, so the fact that he could nail it in one or two takes really helped.”

The pair estimates they had about about 60 actors and 25 crew members, a majority of whom came from the graduate film program at Ohio University they attended after their time in Nelson.

“It was a huge undertaking but there was a huge amount of community involvement,” O’Connell said.

For instance, the town’s electrician, who Swanson attended school with, let the crew use their boom truck for overhead shots, and the mailman in the film was played by the town’s mailman.

Swanson estimates about 18 members of her extended family appear somewhere in the film.

“What’s interesting is the film has that small town, local soul, but it has Hollywood production values so it’s a really nice combination, I think, of homegrown and Hollywood,” she said. “Audiences really are enjoying it.”

Some audience members, O’Connell said, think the film is a documentary because the acting and story seem so natural.

Critics are clearly enjoying it too, as the film has garnered a number of awards and nominations from several film festivals, including the Lady Filmmakers Film Festival in Beverly Hills, the Woods Hole Film Festival in Massachusetts and the Breckenridge Film Festival in Colorado.

Swanson and O’Connell are happy to see that no matter where they screen “Farmer of the Year,” audiences have taken to the film’s Midwestern sensibility.

They’ve been approached by a few distributors but are waiting to find the right fit. In the meantime, they’re screening the film theatrically, hoping to make it to as many screens as they can.

“We want as many people to see it as possible and we really believe in the project so it’s not that hard to sell,” Swanson said.

Allen Lund and Bill Furan embrace their new found fame.

Their parts were comprised of sitting in chairs parked against the wall at the Tyler American Legion.

“We do pretend talking and pointing a little,” Lund said.

No makeup was required for their roles.

“They figured we were handsome enough – we didn’t need any,” Lund said.

Lund figures he’ll soon be vying for parts that would otherwise go to Robert Redford. Not that Lund is a complete novice – he performed in a school play in the 1940s after all.

Yes, Furan said, this is their first time appearing in a movie.

“They don’t come to Tyler too often,” he said.

The film is about a Minnesota farmer, played by Barry Corbin, an actor notable for the “Northern Exposure” TV series and from the movie,”WarGames,” and his granddaughter, Ashley, played by Mackinlee Waddell, who was in the series, “Good Christian Belles.” The two venture to California in a Winnebago to attend a World War II veterans reunion. The reunion takes place at an American Legion which was filmed at the A. C. Hansen Post 185 in Tyler. Tyler native Kathy Swanson and her husband, Vince O’Connell, now of Vermont, are filming their movie this month in Marshall, Lake Benton and Tyler.

Lund and Furan said they were able to rearrange their schedules to fit the filming in. All joking aside, the pair found the behind-the-scenes look at how movies are made fascinating, as did Frank Jorgensen and Sandy Hanson, both of Tyler. Jorgensen and Hanson also were holding down seats next to a wall. For a while, Jorgensen got to get up and get drinks for himself and Hanson during filming, but that was eliminated probably since the buffet table was getting too crowded for the actors.

Jorgensen said even though he is sitting in a seat for most of the day, it’s been “very interesting” to watch how a movie is created.

Hanson said she hadn’t know how many times the same scene has to be filmed to get all the camera angles.

Jorgensen has known Swanson, the film’s writer and director, since she was a young girl. Hanson said her neighbor is Swanson’s brother. Hanson’s farmhouse was filmed for an outside shot.

Teresa Schreurs of Tyler spent the day Friday at the Legion waiting for her cue to step out on the dance floor and serve drinks to reunion attendees. After her character, Marlene, delivers the drinks, one of the Legionnaires asks her to dance. The two-piece old-time band plays a few bars of music so the dancers can get the beat. Schreurs and her partner on the dance floor, George Ruhmann of Tyler, another couple and a lone dancer must keep dancing in silence until they hear the “cut” signal.

Ruhmann said he hasn’t danced in years, and “hasn’t fast-danced ever.”

Schreurs was familiar with jitterbugging, so she came up with a few steps for her and Ruhmann to repeat for the camera.

Schreurs didn’t wake up that morning thinking she was going to be in a movie. She had seen a Facebook post announcing a casting call for background players who are older than 60. She doesn’t fall into that age category, but since she has acted in Lake Benton Opera House productions, she replied to the post saying she would like to help out or just watch. Friday morning she was asked to come in and play a waitress at the American Legion. When she is not delivering drinks and dancing, Schreurs has been watching the crew.
“This is exciting,” Schreurs said. “It’s so fun to see how this all goes together.”

Schreurs said the assistant directors are doing a good job giving direction to people who have no experience in acting in movies.

“The entire crew having been nothing but polite and extremely accommodating to us,” she said.

In the film, Hap and Ashley stop in Mitchell to visit the Corn Palace.

“It’s a Midwestern icon. It’s important to have that authentic Midwestern (feel),” said Swanson about the Corn Palace.

Swanson wanted to highlight the Midwest and her childhood home of Tyler. During her time in Minnesota, she is staying with her 84-year-old father.

The cast and crew is comprised of approximately 85 people from Minneapolis, Ohio University and other areas.

Main character roles for the film are filled by Barry Corbin as Hap and Mackinlee Waddell as Ashley. Terry Kiser, known for his role in “Weekend at Bernie’s,” fills the role of Virgil; one of the characters in the movie.

Swanson and her husband, Vince O’Connell, are film MFA students at Ohio University School of Media Arts and Studies and they are producing the film as thesis project. Swanson wrote the script, and both individuals are directing and producing.

Swanson and O’Connell started preproduction for the film in 2014, and they expect the film to be completed by next summer.

“It blends the comedy and drama of life,” Swanson said.

The film’s cast and crew began filming the middle of July and will end the middle of August. A majority of the film has been done in Tyler and other portions of southwestern Minnesota.

For Swanson, it has been a dream to return to the Midwest and her hometown to film the movie.

Taking place over a thirty day window this summer (July 17th – August 16th), the film’s principle photography will be shot in and around Southwestern Minnesota in Tyler, a small town of about one thousand people which also happens to be where Swanson herself grew up. When not in Tyler, the pair and their crew will also venture to scenic South Dakota for additional filming.

Earlier this month, Swanson and O’Connell gave presentations to OU students interested in crewing on the film. Not only are there internship credits available for students, the pair explained, this opportunity will grant some aspiring filmmakers the chance to gain some necessary but often hard to come by experience working on a feature set.

Not only will students be able to add that all too important feature credit onto their resume, the opportunity affords the chance to gain a multitude of professional connections created by working side-by-side with experiences pros.

Unlike the classic LA experience of being a PA on a feature set where aspiring men and women often find themselves directing traffic three blocks away from the actual set, here they will be up close, right in the middle of the action.

And the cherry on top? It doesn’t cost you anything. Students who agree to crew on Swanson and O’Connell’s set will receive both food an lodging free of charge as well as a two-hundred dollar travel stipend. Experience on an actual feature set where you’ll be fed and housed? It’s hard to beat a deal that good.

Swanson and O’Connell begin rolling out their PR campaign starting today, April 9th, to start the one hundred day countdown to their day of shooting. It’s an incredibly exciting opportunity for students here at OU and an endeavor of which we in the OU Film Division are extremely proud and eager to see come to fruition.

If you are interested in Swanson and O’Connell’s film, Hap and Ashley, or would simply like for information about the project, you can contact them at kathy@kathyandvince.org. And stayed tuned to OU Film blog for periodic updates on the project.