Dances With Films 2024: United Crafts Of America

This year we got the opportunity to cover Dances With Films: The NY Edition and one of the pilots that caught our attention was United Crafts of America. The pilot have not been picked up yet but we know it will be soon based on the first episode we watched that shine a light on one of the premier breweries based in Brooklyn, New York: Interboro Spirits and Ales. The 46 minute episode chronicles the beginning of Interboro from how their founders got into brewing and distillation to finding a space to brew to incorporating hip hop and music into their creation of packaging and beer. We meet Laura Dierks and Jesse Ferguson who are New Yorkers (Laura born and raised, Jesse via West Virginia) to the heart and their quest to create the best beer that NY had to offer but also to create a outlet to make money for doing something they love. Another point of the episode is how beer is intertwined with the history of New York City from the immigrants who brought their beer making techniques to the new country and perfected them to the point where there was breweries in every borough. This is where we learned more about the history of brewmasters in New York in the early 20th century. The directors definitely did some serious research to make this pilot more informative about history than just making beer. We can not forget that this is also about a brewery making it in the big city and carrying on a tradition that preceded them by 100 years or so. United Crafts is definitely a must watch for craft beer lovers, beer historians and New Yorkers who love history about the boroughs. Another must see segment of the pilot is where hip hop culture plays a role in Jesse's brew making process. The names he picks for beers to playing hip hop in the taproom (before it closed down permanently) to the packaging is a reflection of how hip hop influenced him. There is what the series starts out with: identity, heritage, passion and of course beer. We were happy that New York got to start it off and we look forward to more episodes and more cities to explore.

United Crafts of America is created and directed by Sergio Camacho and produced by Robert Scoville. It's a Subversal Films and a Jonathan Adelson production. Featuring Laura Dierks and Jesse Ferguson from Interboro Spirits and Ales.