Working at the Library of Congress in February 2018, the students on the Land Grant Films team began to understand that their project—a documentary about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, tied to the milestone of Parton’s giving away her 100 millionth book—was a much bigger deal than they had realized.

“We were there getting our press passes,” remembers Kayli Martin (’21), the film’s assistant producer. “I thought, ‘This is what it’s like to be a professional journalist.’”

“I had never been to the Library of Congress,” says Abby Bower (’19), a producer and the writer for the project. “The building, number one, is huge and impressive and beautiful. Number two, we were treated like a professional media outlet. As a student setting up for an interview in the Library of Congress, with outlets like ABC and NPR around us, it was a totally mind-boggling moment.”

“We got to shoot everything,” says Brock Zych (’18), who served as director of photography. “We had free rein to go wherever we wanted in the Library of Congress building. I was running around all day. The folks from ABC and NBC, they were restricted.”

Continue to torchbearer.utk.edu for the full story.