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Meet the Greenacres documentary team
Three new Film & New Media instructors will teach classes and guide students as they partner with the Greenacres Foundation to create a feature-length documentary on regenerative agriculture practices.
L-R: Claire Collins, Project Manager - Greenacres Documentary Project; Nathan Buck, Instructor of Film & New Media; and Lydia Marie Hicks, Cinematographer - Greenacres Documentary Project.
When Claire Collins first learned about Interlochen Arts Academy’s partnership with the Greenacres Foundation, the collaboration seemed almost too good to be true.
“Rooting such an ambitious film project in an interdisciplinary, arts-based community and exploring regeneration and farming—I thought, ‘seriously? Is this for real?’” Collins said. “It felt like a manifestation of hopes I hadn’t dared say aloud before.”
Collins is one of three professional filmmakers who have joined the Film & New Media faculty this fall to collaborate on the Greenacres project, a multi-year effort to create a feature-length documentary on the impact of regenerative agriculture. Collins—who serves as the film’s project manager—fellow new faculty Nathan Buck and Lydia Marie Hicks, and other Film & New Media instructors will work closely with students to instill the competencies necessary for the project’s success and guide the film’s development.
“This truly feels like a moment, and so many things are confirming it,” Hicks said. “I can’t wait to explore this adventure with everyone.”
Read on to learn more about Buck, Collins, and Hicks and hear their perspectives on the Greenacres Documentary project.
Nathan Buck, Instructor of Film & New Media
Nathan Buck (he/him) is director, writer, editor, and producer with 25 years of filmmaking experience on four continents. He began working in the film industry in the late ‘90s in London, then spent 15 years in New York. Since 2018, he has been based in Berlin.
Buck recently completed his first narrative feature, Under Spanish Skies, which stars Amr Waked (Syriana, Ramy) and Nahéma Ricci (Antigone - Best Canadian Feature, Toronto International Film Festival, 2019). The film was shot in Spain and premiered in 2022 at the Boston International Film Festival, where it won the Indie Spirit Award for Excellence in Filmmaking. Under Spanish Skies went on to win Best Indie Feature at the Montreal Independent Film Festival and Best Drama Feature at the 2023 Berlin Independent Film Festival; it has been screened at several other festivals and received additional awards.
Buck was honored to be Filmmaker-in-Residence at Interlochen in 2015 and is delighted to be returning as a full-time faculty member and creative leader of the Greenacres documentary project. This will be his second feature-length documentary; he also produced and directed the arts documentary Real Gone! Dance, which premiered at the American Dance Festival in North Carolina in 2009. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he majored in Performance Studies.
Industrial agriculture has been largely under-reported as a leading cause of climate change and has led to degradation and destruction of the world’s soil. Regenerative farming, which is essentially about replenishing the soil by synthesizing time-tested farming practices with modern technology, is one of the solutions to this crisis. I can think of no better collaborators on this film than these Interlochen students, who are so passionate about climate change and will be the future custodians of our planet.
Claire Collins, Project Manager - Greenacres Documentary Project
Claire Hannah Collins (they/she) is a filmmaker born in Hong Kong and raised in Amman, Jordan. In middle school, they began using a camera to try to make sense of the disparate cultures that made up their community. After studying photo and video journalism at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, they spent five years on the video team at the Los Angeles Times before leaving to work as an independent director and producer. Their work focuses on community efforts to create a more free and equitable world. Collins is absolutely thrilled to be joining the Interlochen community and making art together.
I’m honored to be included in this team and thrilled to be learning together. My goal is to develop a creative process that is regenerative for our students, faculty, and story partners in this documentary.
Lydia Marie Hicks, Cinematographer - Greenacres Documentary Project
Lydia Marie Hicks (she/they) is a professional filmmaker and multimedia artist known for her video and place-based installation Black in the Water (2018) and her experimental documentary Rediscovering the Scientist (2016). She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Film/Video from The California Institute of the Arts, and a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from Humboldt State University.
Hicks’ projects seek to explode identity-based historical narratives and promote healing by historicizing alternate concepts of western culture and celebrating the overlooked and undervalued contributions of marginalized groups. Her work has been featured on National Geographic and premiered at Sundance Film Festival. She has been supported by the EarthFire Institute, WildSumaco Biological Station, Interlochen Arts Academy, Guild Hall, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.
This truly feels like a moment, and so many things are confirming it. I’m currently fascinated with documenting the persistence of life in alignment with the Black radical tradition just an hour from here in Black Eden (Idlewild, Michigan). Ancient knowledge persists through art. I’m so grateful to be creating with the Interlochen community once again. Thank you to everyone who has already contacted us wishing to support this project in different ways. I can’t wait to explore this adventure with everyone.
