This feature-length animation, The Chautauqua County Almanac, traces the evolutionary journey of lime plaster technology, from its origins in ancient Levantine mortuary customs to its modern applications in rural American farming. Inspired by Aldo Leopold’s seminal environmental work, A Sand County Almanac, the project unfolds against the backdrop of my family’s grape farm in Chautauqua County, a rural area in western New York. The film represents the culmination of a six-year endeavor, incorporating outdoor time-lapse photography captured by trail cameras and three-dimensional landscape scans.

• Tommy Hartung