I Live in Roanoke Virginia

I’m really proud of my home town, Roanoke Virginia, right now.

Although I’m from Richmond, I’ve lived here long enough to feel native…educated here, married here, divorced here, moved away from here, raised children here, divorced here again, broken here, healed here, started a business here…I live here.

Deschutes Brewery has decided to move Roanoke…to live in Roanoke. Why? Because in Roanoke we live. It’s beautiful and the people are friendly, active and engaging, we have a rich history and everything one could want, including beer.

I’m not a beer connoisseur (for me it always served a single purpose but that’s a story for another time) but I AM an economic development fan. I better be, since I own a small business. Deschutes Brewery will only offer 100 job openings when they start operations somewhere around 2019, but what Deschutes living in Roanoke will do is attract other people and businesses, who love to live, to our region because of the lifestyle we embrace.

On location during production of "Blue Ridge Standard Time".
On location during production of “Blue Ridge Standard Time”.

I certainly can’t make any claim to having any influence on Deschutes Brewery’s decision to build their East Coast brewery in Roanoke, I’ve never met anyone from the company, but I CAN claim to having something to do with some powerful creative endeavors that are aimed at the region’s economic development.

DPC-LLC was very fortunate to have been tapped as the production company for two very high profile corporate films in the last two years, aimed at showing the world how and why we live here in Roanoke Virginia. It was a community effort, as any film production is, and even though I feel like all I did was point the camera in the right direction when told to do so and assemble the resulting images in a pleasing order, when I see all of the excitement and celebration around the announcement of Deschutes’ decision, I get a warm feeling, a sense of gratitude, and a smile comes across my face and I think to myself, “I was a part of this”. I feel connected, “a part of” instead of “separate from”…I live in a community…I love in a community…I live in Roanoke Virginia!

On location during production of "Play".
On location during production of “Play”.