a TigerRAWk Film

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Feed My Sheep: The Ministry of Mama Linda & The Road Dog Cafe


As I posted the footage that I got from Audiofeed Festival 2015, I received a message from Mama Linda (Olson) asking if I could possibly document through film, the ministry of Road Dog Cafe. I agreed that I could & I asked her to just let me know what she wanted. I never necessarily was told what she wanted so the week before Audiofeed Festival, I decided to pay Mama Linda a visit as she, Tara, & Tony tried to prepare for the impending festival. They had a few days left & A LOT of work to do...what I witnessed with my eyes left me doubting it could all get done in time. By God's grace it did!

So, I spent that Saturday at Mama Linda's house as she & Tony discussed the menu. Mama Linda also told me how this feeding of the bands got started through her daughter Amanda feeding & ministering to kids at a skate park in North Carolina. Later, they would do the same thing at Cornerstone & through that Audiofeed Festival was born & the serving has continued. Mama Linda also discussed the feeling that God's called her to step back a little bit & raise up others to carry on the ministry but she was still trying to understand exactly what God was saying. She said all these things while preparing screens for the next round of prints for the official Audiofeed Festival merchandise through her screen printing company - Ugly Lily. Tara continued the printing process from the other screens & Tony continued to prepare for the meals.

Elphie & I arrived early at Audiofeed Festival for the 2016 edition. We were planning to help with GothiCon & the Asylum but when we arrived & got set up, there wasn't much to do so we helped with the preparations of the Road Dog Cafe & continued to document. This year would be different. The Annual Pig Roast was not held on the "Early Access" day as it had been the previous years but on the last night of the Fest which happened to be the Fourth of July. I captured some footage from each of the dinners throughout the duration of Audiofeed then documented the preparations for the Pig Roast. Mama Linda & Tara Trefzger captured a fun moment during breakfast that I was able to include. I was not awake at breakfast time so I missed that. On the Fourth of July, I captured as the pig was removed & the volunteers pulled it in preparation for the rest of us to consume.

It was a rainy week during Audiofeed Festival 2016 which made things somewhat difficult. I had several things going on in the months since the Fest as well as some technical difficulties which delayed the editing process. As this project began to take shape, I asked a few folks to provide a short clip of the impact that Mama Linda & her ministry has had either personally or that they observed.

Thanks to Mike Quigley (KMMG), Ben Rau (The Asylum), Tobin Bawinkel (6'10 & Flatfoot 56), Tyler Hentschel (Insomniac Folklore), Shaun Hays (Chicago Chalk Champ), & Tara Trefgzer (Road Dog Cafe) for your contributions.

So what I was able to create in the end was a short film documenting the preparations for ministering to hundreds of artists & bands through hospitality, feeding them, & giving them a space to fellowship while on the road. The film also includes the history & impact of Mama Linda's Kitchen & Road Dog Cafe, preparing the official merchandise of Audiofeed Festival through Ugly Lily - Mama Linda's Screen printing company as well as the preparation of the annual Pig Roast. The footage was mostly compiled during the week leading up to & during Audiofeed Festival. Additional footage was compiled in April & May of 2017.

The Soundtrack is "Dumpster Divers (Breaking of Bread)" by Psalters & "Come All You Weary" by Thrice. These songs were chosen because the subject matter seemed appropriate to what Mama Linda & the Road Dog Cafe do. I suppose there are quite a few other songs out there that fit the mold as well & I could have taken the time to dig up a few other tunes instead of repeating these over & over through the project but I did not feel I had the time to spend doing that. As it was, I had hoped to get the finished project out much sooner than this.

Footage was filmed by Adrienne Michelle, Tara Trefzger, Mama Linda, Elphie, & Joel A. Swanson. Footage was compiled & edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini by Joel A. Swanson


The original cut of the project now called the "extended version" is also included. There is about 14 minutes of extra footage that I cut out from this one. I hoped to cut it down further but I could not figure out where else to cut.


This playlist is all three videos of "Feed My Sheep"