EAST HARDWICK – The animated film “Brother Bird,” created by East Hardwick’s Meredith Holch has won the Made Here Film Festival’s (MHFF) 2025 award for Best Animated Film. The film will be shown during the festival this weekend, with three other short films, collected as “The Great Outdoors,” Sunday, April 27, 2:15 p.m., at the Burlington Beer Company (BBCO) Lumière Hall, 180 Flynn Avenue, Burlington.
courtesy photo
“Brother Bird” was created by laying colored tissue paper on glass plates and moving them past each other to create a three-dimensional effect of motion through stop-action photography, said Holch.
This is the fifth year of the Made Here Film Festival. It is co-produced by the Vermont International Film Festival and Vermont Public. MHFF is the only festival dedicated exclusively to the films and filmmakers of New England and Québec. Jurors reviewed a record 130 film submissions, selecting a final 50 being shown during this year’s festival, April 24 to 27. “We feel the results are extraordinary, and hope you share our enthusiasm,” wrote festival organizers. “We’re excited that many of the filmmakers will be present for their screenings and for Q&As afterwards, as well.” Learn more at madeherefilmfestival.org
photo by Meredith Holch
Holch intends to be at the showing of her film this Sunday in the red brick building constructed in 1901 by pioneers of early cinema, the Lumière brothers.
Her award comes with a $250 prize for the film that tells real-life stories of loved ones who visit from the afterlife, told through tissue paper animation.
In October, Holch received another award at the Vermont Animation Festival, where they said, “We had an amazing collection of films this year! Meredith Holch’s ‘Brother Bird’ was awarded Best Film by a Vermont Animator. The images in this stop-motion film, constructed by layered tissue paper, accompany three real-life stories of dearly remembered loved ones who visit from the after-life in the form of birds or insects.”
Holch said she grew up with films and filmmaking since her father was a TV documentary journalist. In the early days of television he covered controversial topics relating to race relations and political issues in the U.S., winning an Emmy in 1991 for a story documenting the life of a German man who had been a member of the Hitler Youth and then turned against the Nazis.
photo by Meredith Holch
Holch’s mother was a film librarian at the public library, in her hometown, close to New York City, where she’d often be called upon to serve on the jury for film festivals. In addition to the library’s Friday night film series and the extensive film collection, Holch was exposed to the films her mother received to judge, saying her favorite was the now-classic, “Reefer Madness.”
Despite those beginnings, Holch said she had no early interest in film and moved to Vermont, wanting to be near an older brother, whom she greatly admired. Her brother had been a neighborhood leader as they grew up, organizing shows of various sorts and creating a local newspaper.
In Vermont, Holch became an apple picker, eventually becoming interested in Glover’s Bread and Puppet Theatre, where she spent five years. At one point she borrowed a Super 8 movie camera from her father and went backstage, using various toys to make a stop motion animated film; mostly playing around, she said.
Becoming more interested in film, though not to make documentaries as her father had, she ended up in San Francisco and took a class in Super 8 filmmaking. That led to her becoming involved with a Brattleboro TV station, bringing her back to Vermont. Eventually video cameras came into being, but they required specialized editing equipment, she said. That led to her exchanging time to tape select board meetings for studio time to edit her personal work. It wasn’t glamorous work, but gave her access to the technology that was important to doing what was important to her, she said.
Along the way she enrolled in the Maine International Film and TV Workshop, leaving after a year to move to New York City. There she had the opportunity to learn about 16mm film at the New School, working as a video editor at the same time.
Eventually, she enrolled in Bard College, making more New York City connections. She ran into someone at a queer bar involved with accepting films for a festival that had just ended accepting entries, but gave her overnight to turn in a film. That led to her film, “Rocket Girls Revenge” appearing on PBS.
She did more animation at Bard, eventually returning to Vermont where she spent another 20 years. She said animation “is very labor intensive and hard to get grants for, so I gave it up. It seemed to be more of a hobby. I mostly enjoyed the engagement of making films, but not the distribution.”
She began to do crankie shows, a form of visual storytelling using a hand-cranked scroll within a box on which drawings are made. Those were faster to make and gave her the same satisfaction, also putting her in front of a live audience, she said. “They were interesting and not commercial. Crankie performances for libraries and schools paid at least a little bit of money and it was enough to survive.”
During the Reagan years Holch says she realized politics wasn’t the way to make changes in society, but art was. “Animation seemed to draw everyone in, regardless of [their] age or politics.” Holch pointed out that her own work carries themes of social justice similar to the documentary work her father did. The medium is different and her work connects with people more emotionally as art.
She made a film about migrant workers in Vermont in 2006, before most people were aware they existed. Farmers were reluctant to share that they employed migrants. She heard from one farmer they “would have liked to have a tunnel from the workers homes to the barn,” she said.
Holch was instrumental in helping to get Hardwick Community Television (HCTV) off the ground and ran it for five years. Changes in the media landscape brought more opportunities to stream content, leading to difficulties in the cable industry that affected HCTV’s funding.
As it became harder to keep HCTV going, she became concerned and headed to Massachusetts, where a job at Belmont Media Center was available. That was just before the pandemic changed everything, she said..
East Hardwick, where she had a home, and the connections she made in the area called to her, she said. She was able to get a grant for a film animating old photos of East Hardwick to tell the story of the place. That brought her back to Vermont as the pandemic ended.
Her brother, who she says “had trouble figuring out how to live,” passed away in 2016. As she went through his things, she came across a series of books he’d written about “Farmer Fence.”
During that period she had an experience with her mother and sister of her brother coming back as a seagull, she said. She didn’t quite know how to relate the experience intellectually, but saw a connection to his “Farmer Fence” books, considering using them as the source for a new film, she said.
The books were in bad shape and others in her family weren’t in favor of sharing them with the world. As she ruminated on the idea of a film, she discovered others had had similar experiences of connecting with departed loved ones.
The film “Brother Bird” came from that and tells the story of her experience with her brother and similar ones from two others.
She entered the East Hardwick film in the Made Here Film Festival, but it didn’t get accepted. Her recent success entering film festivals may seem encouraging, but she again finds making and showing crankies more interesting. The audience response is more direct, she says. “They are transportable, quick and fun, involving creativity, using rhyming, music and performing.”
There may be more animation down the road, but it’s not in her immediate future, she said.
Holch is an independent filmmaker specializing in mixed-media stop-motion animation. She is committed to producing work about socially relevant themes. Holch’s animation and videos have been broadcast on PBS and have screened at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC; the National Art Gallery in Washington, DC; The Exploratorium in San Francisco; the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston; as well as at international film festivals, art galleries, and colleges and universities. She particularly enjoys showing her animations at community spaces such as grange halls, libraries, the walls of endangered community gardens, and the sides of old barns near her home in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.
VTIFF is a non-profit film organization, with two annual festivals, and year-round screenings in both the The Film House at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center and The Screening Room @ VTIFF, a 32 seat micro-cinema.
Vermont Public is Vermont’s unified public media organization, providing local access to national programming from NPR and PBS, and serving the community with trusted journalism, quality entertainment, and educational programming.
VTIFF and Vermont Public both rely on membership to support their missions. For more information or to become a member visit vermontpublic.org/donate and vtiff.org/membership
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
I found and read this article after learning that Meredith passed away very suddenly. I am so grateful that you wrote such a beautiful review about her work, which also offers glimpses into the kind of person she was and the kind of heart she had. “She particularly enjoys showing her animations at community spaces such as grange halls, libraries, the walls of endangered community gardens, and the sides of old barns near her home in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.” Thank you for honoring her work in this way.
Thank you for reading it.
Having read much that I could find about Meredith, while writing it, I was surprised there wasn’t much biographical information to be found about her. I was honored she spent well over an hour sharing her history and perspective when I interviewed her. I had an unexplainable feeling of the need to give great care and attention to what I wrote. Now I’m glad I did.
She and I attended the same Connecticut high school, though she was some years younger than I am. We didn’t meet until we both lived in East Hardwick and both became involved with the Grange. I’ve known Meredith now for more than a decade and learned many new things writing the article. I’ll have to go over my notes to see what I might have gotten wrong, and perhaps add more of what I learned.
She saw the piece after I wrote it and said, “Thanks Paul, a few people have enjoyed reading it. Nice job. The chronology and details aren’t always right, but no one will notice that but me. Nice job weaving together gaps in what I said!”
I send love to Meredith and all who know her, or ever had the opportunity to interact with her.
Paul Fixx, editor
Rest in peace, Meredith. Thank you for being an inspiration!