Directed by Kerry French | Country of Origin: United States | Runtime: 27:10 | Documentary
Coffee, Community, Culture is a documentary short is dedicated to local coffee shops that are impacting their perspective communities. This film features three coffee entities in New Orleans, Atlanta, and Tallahassee. They took time to discuss how they are using coffee as a gateway to fight crime through literacy while exposing gentrification, empowering entrepreneurship, influencing generational wealth, and supporting nonprofit organizations.
Director Biography – Kerry French
Kerry French was born and raised in New Orleans, La, and comes from a family of talented jazz musicians. But even at an early age, he knew he would take a different path though he has a deep love for music.
Kerry attended the University of Minnesota, Morris, where he played college football, and where he got his first introduction to mass communication known as media studies. Kerry finished his college studies in New Orleans and after spending five years producing talk radio shows in New Orleans and Atlanta, he spent 10 years as a TV producer at network affiliates throughout the south. Most recently, he was a producer for a cable news network in Tallahassee, Florida.
His hobbies include traveling, and being a constant patron of local coffee shops, Kerry loves to attend festivals, and live music events, especially jazz festivals. Kerry also spends a lot of his time watching documentaries, he has always envisioned creating documentaries himself but never mustered up enough courage to do it until he attended the Tallahassee Film Festival in 2021. Kerry met with many filmmakers in attendance who encouraged him to just do it. “I love the art of docu-style storytelling, Kerry says, If all stories can be told in that format I believe people would be better informed of the stories that are being told especially if it is in a non-narrative form. It is a bonus when folks can tell their own story.
Kerry went on to create his first film ‘Coffee, Community, Culture’ a documentary that features local coffee shops that are impacting communities across the country. This is only the beginning, says Kerry who is looking to tell more stories that go under the radar.