Welcome to Agricola Media!
Agricola Media specializes in producing information media for the medical profession, how-to videos by notable crafts people, and documentaries focused on biographies of people of interest. Current productions include Making & Mastering Wood Planes, a “how-to” mini-series with renowned woodworker David Finck; To Have & To Give, a heartfelt documentary about live organ donation, produced in cooperation with Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City; and Captain, a profile of a fascinating Vietnam veteran.
Latest Productions
Captain
A story of loyalty…and remembrance. Captain Richard Updaw, USMC 1966-1970, is the film subject of this documentary. A chance observation at a cemetery led to a search beginning in 2004 to resurrect the memory of a fallen 19 year old Corporal killed in the fighting on Iwo Jima in 1945. The complete film is slated for release on Memorial Day 2012.
Making and Mastering Wood Planes
Agricola Media and master woodworker David Finck have released Making and Mastering Wood Planes. Shot in November 2011, it has been on sale since February, 2012. This 4 hour and forty minute how-to-epic is THE definitive video guide to making modern wood planes suitable for fine woodworking. If you have a woodworker in the family, this is a gift that will both inspire and inform that person! You can purchase this wrapped DVD set at David Finck’s website. View the trailer here.
To Have & To Give…
Agricola Media’s inaugural documentary, To Have and To Give, is an inspiring story of living organ donation. The film couldn’t be more personal for me: I was not only the filmmaker, but also the donor in question!
In 2001, my brother-in-law, the violinist Sung Rai Sohn, was terminally ill with liver disease. The prospects for finding a liver from a deceased donor were dim. A newspaper article on living donation got me thinking: perhaps I could give a portion of my own liver to Sung Rai. The twin surgeries were successful. Sung Rai and I are both living active and productive lives ten years later.
I made this documentary to connect with family and friends of patients who are in the same boat as Sung Rai. The promise – and at times difficult reality – of living donation is presented in the form of interviews with family members, transplant surgeons, social workers, and a Living Donor Advocate from the Center for Living Donation at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City.