The Project for Under-Told Stories premiers "If A Road Runs Through It" documentary

A documentary film, If A Road Runs Through It,   makes its premiere screening at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, at Pellegrene Auditorium, Saint John’s University, Collegeville.

The 30-minute documentary, a production of The Project for Under-Told Stories at SJU, tells the story of the challenges rapid change and development have brought to the Avon Hills area of Stearns County.  A question-and-answer session follows the debut. All of the individuals featured in the film have been invited to the premiere.

If A Road Runs Through It is scheduled to make its broadcast premiere at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28   on TPT Channel 17, Twin Cities.   

Avon Hills is an area of roughly 50 square miles in Avon, St. Joseph, Collegeville and St. Wendel townships, and was identified as one of the last best places to live by the Nature Conservatory. It is a significant green space that provides habitat for rare flowers, fish and birds.

If A Road Runs Through It is in part an elegy for the passing of a way of rural life nurtured for over a century by family farms, Saint John’s Abbey, Collegeville, and Saint Benedict’s Monastery, St. Joseph. It tells the story of Bob Rassier’s determination to hang on to his family farm, the last standing farm in the city of St. Joseph. His farm, like the meadow and forest lands of the College of Saint Benedict, stands in the way of a proposed bypass that would connect Interstate Highway 94 with development sprawling westward from St. Cloud.

The film also tells the story of the stewardship of the land for 150 years by Saint John’s Abbey. The Saint John’s Arboretum may well be the last refuge of the old landscape and ecosystem.

The documentary also has an eye for hope in the future. It tells the story of the Schellenger family, who have worked for four generations as carpenters and woodworkers. While other family farms have been sold to real estate developers, the Schellengers instead sold 102 acres of pristine woodlands along Schuman Lake Road to the Minnesota DNR, so the next generation can continue to enjoy the land.

Fred de Sam Lazaro, director of The Project for Under-Told Stories and a correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and other public broadcast media, is the executive producer of the documentary, which was produced by Nikki See. The directors are Mark Conway, director of the Literary Arts Institute at CSB, and Nick Hayes, professor of history at CSB/SJU and University Chair in Critical Thinking at SJU. Nick Swanson, a student at SJU, served as a production assistant on the project.

Funding and additional support were provided by Project Logos, SJU; Literary Arts Institute, CSB; and the University Chair in Critical Thinking, SJU.

The Project for Under-Told Stories is a collaborative project involving international journalism and teaching. Established earlier this year, the project engages students from SJU and CSB in courses, hands-on internships and mentoring opportunities providing a forum for critical reflection on the world’s “under-told stories.” The project will also host special events and guest speakers of national and international reputation.