Life May Be Growing Right Beneath Our Feet

New Decorah Short Film Celebrates Foraging, Friendship and Food From the Forest

By Deliverance Hope
Word ’Round Town

Some treasures are found in stores.

Others are discovered beneath a canopy of trees, tucked among fallen leaves and waiting quietly on the forest floor.

A new locally created short film will invite Northeast Iowa viewers to step into the woods and experience the wonder of gathering food from the wild.

The Best Things in Life Are Free, a nine-minute film shot around Decorah, will premiere Wednesday, August 5, at the Viking 3 Theatre. The free, family-friendly screening begins at 5:30 p.m.

An Empty Basket and a Spring Evening

Directed by Luigi Rausch and filmed by Armando Jenkins-Vazquez, the short film follows a man entering the woods on a spring evening with an empty basket and a search in mind.

He is looking for wild ramps.

The journey moves from gathering the plants to washing and preparing them, transforming a seemingly simple foraging trip into what organizers describe as a surreal culinary experience drawn directly from the forest floor.

Ramps are a wild member of the onion family known for their broad green leaves and strong onion-and-garlic flavor. They emerge in wooded areas during spring and have long been gathered for cooking.

Yet the film appears to offer more than a lesson about finding something edible.

It celebrates the experience of slowing down, stepping outdoors and noticing that the natural world may hold abundance in places many people pass without ever seeing.

A Local Story Told Through Film

Because the film was shot around Decorah and created by local filmmakers, the premiere offers audiences an opportunity to recognize familiar surroundings through a different lens.

The Driftless Area is known for its wooded hills, valleys, streams and changing seasons. In this film, that landscape becomes more than scenery. It becomes part of the story.

The forest provides the setting.

The ramps provide the meal.

And the act of gathering creates a connection between the person, the food and the ground from which it grew.

That connection may feel especially meaningful in a region where farming, gardening, hunting, fishing and gathering remain part of everyday life for many families.

More Than a Screening

The evening will begin with an introduction before the film is shown. A question-and-answer session will follow, giving audience members an opportunity to learn more about the production and the ideas behind it.

Guests will also be able to meet the filmmakers during a gathering after the screening, either in the theater lobby or outdoors if weather permits.

The premiere is being supported by Copyland, Lickety Split and the Decorah Viking 3 Theatre. Admission is free, and the organizers are encouraging community members of all ages to attend.

A Story About What Is Already There

The title, The Best Things in Life Are Free, carries a fitting message.

Food does not always begin beneath bright grocery-store lights.

Sometimes it begins beneath spring leaves.

Sometimes it requires knowledge, patience and a careful eye.

And sometimes an empty basket can lead to an unexpectedly rich experience.

The film also offers a gentle reminder that value is not always measured by a price tag. A walk through the woods, time spent with others, a meal prepared from something gathered by hand and the discovery of what has been growing nearby all along may carry a kind of richness that cannot be purchased.

For nine minutes on a Decorah movie screen, viewers will be invited to follow that journey from forest floor to finished dish.

And perhaps they will leave looking a little more closely at the world growing just beyond their own doorsteps.