Stonehenge II

Fourth in Outlier's "Photo Opportunities (Texas Edition): Miles and Miles of Texas," a series of vignettes about Texas roadside attractions as photo opportunities, "Stonehenge II" investigates the large Stonehenge replica, now located at the Hill Country Arts Foundation, Ingram, TX, a location that solidifies its status as public art (as well as a roadside attraction). Stonehenge II was the unanticipated result when Al Shepperd's neighbor Doug Hill gifted him with a large rock left over from a landscaping project, and Al got "Stonehenge fever." Doug soon found himself building a large scale replica henge on Al's ranch, which became a local sensation, caused traffic jams, became a tourist destination, the site of weddings, album covers, medieval reenactments, and eventually a backdrop for an early episode of "Friday Night Lights." Stonehenge II's location is not that far from Austin -- how could Outlier resist a visit? Moreover, our research quickly revealed that "Stonehenge Fever" is a widespread phenomenon, with 83 currently extant large replica henges on six continents. For just a taste of just widespread, see the excellent blog, Clonehenge (www.clonehenge.com), or the Wikipedia article ("Stonehenge replicas and derivatives," en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge_replicas_and_derivatives).

Outlier was hooked! After we documented Stonehenge II, "Stonehenge fever" led us to investigate a little known henge on a hill in northwestern Illinois, and then to build our own mini replica henges, which we shot with simulated Solstice lighting. Warning! "Stonehenge Fever" may be contagious ... after watching our film, you might find yourself following Clonehenge on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Clonehenge/) or posting something to one of their Friday Foodhenge events.

  • Pamela Falkenberg
    Director
  • Jack Cochran
    Director
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    September 19, 2016
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    HD video
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Pamela Falkenberg, Jack Cochran

Pam's bio:

Pam is an independent filmmaker who received her PhD from the University of Iowa and taught at Northern Illinois University, St.Mary's College, and the University of Notre Dame. She directed the largest student film society in the US while she was at the University of Iowa, and also ran films series for the Snite Museum of Art in South Bend, IN. Her experimental film with Dan Curry, "Open Territory," received an individual filmmaker grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as grants from the Center for New Television and the Indiana Arts Council. "OT" was screened at numerous film festivals, including the AFI Video Festival, and was nominated for a regional Emmy. Her other films include museum installations, scholarly/academic hybrid works shown at film conferences, and a documentary commissioned by the Peace Institute at the University of Notre Dame.

Pam wants to make all kinds of films with Jack, but she is particularly proud of having suggested that his poems should be made into films, and collaborating on bringing them to life.

Jack's bio:

Jack is an independent filmmaker who has produced, directed, or shot a variety of experimental and personal projects. As a DP he has extensive experience shooting commercials, independent features, and documentaries. His varied commercial client list includes BMW, Ford, Nissan, Fujifilm, Iomega, Corum Watches, and Forte Hotels. His features and documentaries have shown at the Sundance, Raindance, Teluride, Tribeca, Edinburgh, Chicago, Houston, and Taos film Festivals, winning several honors. His commercials and documentaries have won Silver Lions from Cannes, a BAFTA (British Academy Award), Peabody Awards, and Cable Aces. Jack was trained at the University of Iowa Creative Writers Workshop as well as the University of Iowa film studies program. Some notable credits: Director of Photography on Brian Griffin's "Claustrofoamia,"Cinematography for Antony Thomas’ "Tank Man," Director/Cinematographer of "Viento Nocturno", and Cinematographer of Ramin Niami’s feature film "Paris."

Jack has been writing poetry all his life, but never knew what to do with his poems, until he showed his notebooks to Pam, who said, “You’re a filmmaker — why shouldn’t they be films?”

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Jack Cochran and Pamela Falkenberg are making personal films together again under the name Outlier Moving Pictures. They hope their new films will be worthy of the name -- avoiding the usual patterns and approaching their subject matter from the margins (which sounds better than saying that as filmmakers they're oddballs and cranks). Pam and Jack met in graduate school and made films together when they were young. Jack went on to become a professional cinematographer working out of LA and London, while Pam stayed in the Midwest, where she was a college professor and independent filmmaker before dropping out to work in visual display. Their first film together, "The Cost of Living," based on some of Jack's short poems, screened at several film festivals, including the Queens World Film Festival, the Buffalo International Film Festival and the Cornwall Film Festival, was nominated for two awards at the 2017 Jim Thorpe Film Festival, and took the award for best experimental film at the 2016 WV FILMmakers Festival. Other short poetry films have screened at the Ò Bhéal Poetry Film Festival (2016, 2018), the Juteback Poetry Film Festival (2017, 2018), the Festival Silencio (2017) , the Filmpoem Festival (2017), the 6th CYCLOP Videopoetry Festival (2017), the 6th International Video Poetry Festival (Athens Greece, 2018), and the Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival (2018). Just completed is an experimental documentary essay about the North Dakota landscape and Teddy Roosevelt, "Teddy Roosevelt and Fracking," which showed out-of-competition as a work-in-progress at the WV FILMmakers Fest in October 2017 and premiered at the Queens World Film Festival in March 2018, where it was nominated for three awards (Best Cinematography, Best Director, and Best Documentary Short), taking the award for Best Documentary Short. "Teddy" has also screened at the 2018 Ekofilm Festival in Poland, the 2018 Buffalo International Film Festival, the 2018 Go West Film Festival, and the American Presidents Film and Literary Festival at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Museum and Library in October 2018, where it was nominated for two judges awards and won the Audience Choice Award. Along with that, a series of shorts about photo opportunities and roadside attractions in Texas (the first installment of which, "Prada Marfa," premiered in the True Texas Travel category at the Thin Line Festival in April 2018), and some brief experimental romantic comedies based on Craigslist's Missed Connections, a compilation version of which, "Missed Connections Anthology," premiered at the Austin Spotlight Festival in April 2018, and screened for the second time at the KinoDrome Festival in Cleveland, OH in September 2018. Their most recent poetry films are collaborations, with Dave Bonta, on "In West Virginia," from his book, "Failed State," and with Lucy English on, "The Shadow," and "The Names of Trees," for her Book of Hours project (http://thebookofhours.org/).