✦ Shope Creek Wilderness · For Jackson
The Archivist
The keeper of the visual record.
✦ After Shope Creek Wilderness
After talking with Stephen and spending more time sitting with everything that happened at Shope Creek Wilderness, I think we have clarity.
The docuseries isn't really about a retreat.
✦ What You Actually Captured
It's about the emergence
of a place.
What you accidentally captured is the beginning of something much larger than any of us realized.
Stephen
spent decades protecting the land.
Forest Floor
built a community.
Kenny
found The Deer Trail.
Patricc
found the house.
Jamie
found Mary's story.
You
found the archive.
And now we're trying to figure out what happens next.
✦ My Commitment
Move to Asheville.
Activate Shope Creek Wilderness.
The goal is not to create a retreat center.
The goal is to create a place where artists, filmmakers, musicians, founders, families, and future generations gather and leave something behind.
First steward residencies
Artists, writers, filmmakers begin to root
Camp Mary launches
The gathering becomes recurring
Docuseries gets finished
And we keep filming what comes next
✦ Your Role
Bigger than filmmaker.
You're becoming the archivist.
The keeper of the visual record.
The person helping preserve what is being born there.
✦ Immediate Priorities
Stay Curious
Complete and deliver
Docuseries edit
Keep building the edit
Holy Water piece
The creek. The sound. The story.
Camp Mary piece
Document the launch
✦ Then We Prepare
The next gathering.
The next Camp Mary.
The next interviews.
The next chapter.
And we keep filming because I honestly don't think anyone knows what Shope Creek Wilderness becomes yet. We're discovering it together.
That's the assignment.
— Craig